Florian Kajamini has not deserved the tag of the best conti rider in Italy for nothing. Despite only winning three times in 2024, the 21-year-old Italian has been a consistent top-10 finisher at the highly valued Italian U23 circuit.
Interestingly, the big stand out performance from Kajamini came in April at the Giro d'Abruzzo (2.1) where he fared more than respectably against the WorldTour competition. After that race came two back-to-back victories at Tr. S. Vendemiano (U23) and Giro della Provincia Biella, followed by 7th overall finish at the Giro Next Gen. Perhaps most impressive of all was Kajamini's Tour de l'Avenir where he managed to win the penultimate stage and finish fifth overall.
Read also
"This season has been full of remarkable events and victories, and my recent success at the Tour de l’Avenir has been a significant milestone, highlighting a successful year," he highlights his recent result at the mini-Tour for U23 riders.
However the path of Kajamini wasn't always straightforward, with the biggest twist coming in form of an injury that saw the Italian miss the whole 2022 season. However his team never lost faith in the talented youngster who delivered over the past two years. "I would like to thank my current team, MBH Bank-Colpack-Ballan-CSB, with whom I spent three amazing years, achieving high results and proving myself at a high level... Together with them, I was able to achieve results that allowed me to take this big step in my career – joining the renowned Astana Qazaqstan Team."
A complicated challenge lies ahead of Astana in 2025. Despite numerous powerful signings, there is no guarantee the Kazakh team will manage to save their WorldTour license, let alone secure automatic wildcards for 2026 in case they fail. Kajamini is well aware that his role will mostly consist of assisting his leaders in racking up UCI points in his debut year.
"I am truly excited to join this team; it’s a special moment for me. I had a dream of joining the WorldTour, and now that dream is coming true. Next season, the team is undergoing changes, and I know that big goals are being set ahead, and I am 100% ready to work hard and give my best effort. I know it will be tough, but I will do everything possible to achieve success in the end. Next year, I am ready to give my all for the team, its leaders, and the team’s goals, while also gaining experience to achieve high results for myself," he concludes.
Read also
Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
claps 0visitors 0
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- He has already beaten Pogi twice in the TDF. the achievement is over. He cannot beat Pogi now and he only has a few years left at the top. Win Giro and compete in the TDF, maximise palmares.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just looked again at the photo. Yeah I stand by that. If MS had fallen over in Brands direction I don’t even think she would have hit her. You must be a UCI race commissioner. I’ll be sure to check my sock height should I ever see you on a ride. Looks like everyone else on here sees what I see.mij08-11-2026
- I said looking at the photo it doesn’t appear she deviated. Chill out, not stating my word is the final judgement. Just commenting that based on the photo I don’t see it. And BTW the Dutch coach even said she didn’t impede her.mij08-11-2026
- Blah Blah Blah !frieders308-11-2026
- MS said she was changing gears so that caused her slight deviation. Nothing was intentional.frieders308-11-2026
- How can you use a photo post incident to judge the incident itself (which is not hard to find if you’re prepared to invest the same amount of time in searching as writing that comment? It’s harsh but technically right even though this or worse is not always sanctioned in every race. The two things that went against MS (who unfortunately for her would still have won without making her mistake) are that it was not a bunch sprint where there could have been an overlooked incident or mitigating circumstances explaining a deviation. Everything was focused on just those 2, Schreiber was riding beautifully balanced which made her sudden deviation look unnatural stroke as if it could have been in some part intentional whilst she was slowly drifting ever closer towards the barrier to a point that would have reached obstruction level. In her defence, it might have been the realisation she was heading towards that that made her react suddenly and caused the deviation involuntarily. In any case, congratulations to her for the ride of her life, in people’s minds she will be credited for it.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- Good boy Obviously doesn’t need that much help dealing with pressure, as some have suggested. Wiser (and humbler) than many far further along their careers. About offering him the moon, recently someone came up with an explanation of the downfall of a football great (either referring to Maradona or Portuguese Ronaldo) saying it was kind of normal after coming back from the moon, except that others, including some who actually did go to the moon like Armstrong (Neil in case anyone is too switched off to realise) didn’t go through any of the same motions after coming back. A lot of how you deal with situations has less to do with the situation than with your character.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- I think that they're not really used to dealing with this type of incident in a cyclocross race, and the situation has been magnified because it was a race for a championship title. It's very unfortunate that the race had to be decided in this way.
santiagobenites07-11-2026 - Seriously why do they keep doing stupid things like this. Its one thing to relegate when the placings are minor, when the action is blatant. But when it is ambiguous, why dont they at least take advice from some higher up to avoid embarrassing themselves. This is similar to the Halland goal when his teammate was clearly offside and interfered in play and VAR gave them the goal. if you dont have evidence you cannot convict. Even for doping they have these rulesabstractengineer07-11-2026
- So all those who went to watch, including all from abroad, waled there, spent nothing? Most places hosting events of the sort manage to make it worthwhile. If it was so obviously fruitless, don’t you think by now they’d have run out of hosting candidates? Why do you think the Tour can command such high prices for departure and arrival locations? If it didn’t bring anything locally they’d have to pay to get authorisation to use cities.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
Loading
🇮🇹 NEW RIDER: We welcome Florian Samuel Kajamini as our neo-pro rider for the following two seasons: 📰👉 bit.ly/3XjHwyk #AstanaQazaqstanTeam
Write a comment