Simone Velasco's excellent result at La Doyenne puts Astana within reach of WorldTour: "Fourth place today feels like a victory for us"

Fourth place is rarely a result that is celebrated, but for XDS Astana it's almost the same as winning the Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Thanks to Simone Velasco's excellent sprint, Astana is 440 points closer to their goal of holding on to their WorldTour license with gap to safe 18th position dropping below 4 digits.

"I am very happy with my result, it is a big step for me to be fourth, so close to the podium in a Monumental Classic like Liège–Bastogne–Liège," said excited Velasco in a press release after the race.

However it was far from a walk in the park for Velasco, he explains: "It was a super hard race, and some bad luck made it even harder: I got a mechanical just before La Redoute and was able to catch the last wheel of the group at the start of the climb. So, I had to spend a lot of energy to pass small groups and to come more or less to the front, and then to continue pushing hard to come back to the main group."

Eventually, he was able to find his place in a larger group that came together to compete for fourth place. "In the final kilometers, I got some valuable help from my teammates to get a good position for the sprint. I did my best in the sprint, and at the end of this long day, I got fourth place."

Compared to his teammate Christian Scaroni who was flying in early months, Velasco started the season a bit slower, but the result at Liege is a culmination of a strong period with top performances at Itzulia Basque Country (8th overall) and Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali (5th overall).

"It is an important achievement for me and also for the team. After bad luck at Amstel Gold Race and tough weather at La Flèche Wallonne, finally I could find good form and show myself. I am grateful for my teammates who also worked very hard for this result today. Now we need to focus on our next goals."

The importance of this result resonates also in the words of team manager Alexandr Vinokurov: "Fourth place today feels like a victory for us."