Another Italian heading to Astana! Nicola Conci's move for 2025 seems to be a done deal

Astana Qazaqstan continues its furious scan of the transfer market, having found another promising addition to their 2025 plans in the 27-year-old Nicola Conci, Gazzetta dello Sport reports. According to the Italian newspaper, the transfer can be considered a done deal.

The Italian rider is strong in both short and longer uphill efforts although his main value for Astana is definitely the ability to bring home GC results from smaller stage races, which usually come along with a nice UCI points boost.

Currently at Alpecin-Deceuninck, Conci is one of the very few climbers on the Belgian team's lineup, hence he gets a chance to contest general classifications at races that are a tad bit too big for Conci (such as Tirreno-Adriatico, Itzulia Basque Country or Tour de Suisse), however the Italian has already proved he's more than suited to deliver large portion of points from races such as Tour of Slovenia. And that's mostly what his role at Astana should look like.

It's a rather logical move for both sides. Astana has a strong Italian base which should provide the 23rd rider from this year's Giro d'Italia with a familiar environment that will allow him to further develop his abilties.

Conci's professional career started at Lidl-Trek in 2018. This collaboration came to an end after four years on rather bad terms with Conci the full second half of 2021 season. His next stint at Gazprom was cut short after just two months with the team's forced disbanding. Luckily, Alpecin picked up then 25-year-old Italian to give him one more chance among pros.

And three years later, Conci should reunite with some of his former Gazprom teammates in Astana again. It's in the PRT team where he crossed paths with Cristian Scaroni and Simone Velasco who both established themselves to be respected figures in the WorldTour bunch. It'll be, among others, up to the ex-Gazprom trio to bring about a miracle for Astana.