"We achieved our goal, everyone is happy" - Alexey Lutsenko successfully defends Giro d'Abruzzo lead on final stage
Cycling
Despite some attacking riding by UAE Team Emirates, Alexey Lutsenko held firm on the final stage of the 2024 Giro d'Abruzzo this Friday afternoon.
With the Giro d'Abruzzo replacing the Giro di Sicilia on the UCI calendar, Lutsenko actually made it an Italian stage race success for the second straight year. “Everything went as planned. Yesterday we took a victory at the toughest stage and today we needed to control the race, in the beginning we did not let the gap of the first breakaway grow, it was a minute, maximum a minute and a half," reflects the Kazakh National Champion to the Astana Qazaqstan Team website post-race.
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"The guys worked for 100% today, it’s especially pleasant to acknowledge that we also had young riders from the development team who had a proper race, and who competed at the same level with other more experienced riders," Lutsenko continues, having joined an attack with Pavel Sivakov and George Bennett, although the other two to fight for the stage as he rolled over the line in third as overall winner. "With 50 kilometres before the finish I joined the attacking riders in order to also control the situation and protect our leader’s jersey. We achieved our goal, everyone is happy.”
“When Lutsenko is racing, it is always great, he is a protagonist, a team leader. Here we had also our young talents who were highly motivated to support the captain of the team. Today in the morning we were talking about the importance of our teamwork and I can say that the team performed good… not even good, but perfect!" assesses a delighted sports director, Giuseppe Martinelli. "I enjoyed it. It is a beautiful victory, especially before our next races: Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Tour de Romandie.”
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Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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- Seriously do you think when somebody gets into a serious accident, the ambulance is called by the hurt person?🤦 there is always a buddy system in place for a risky job. police , firefighters etc so that if someone gets hurt, the other call that in.abstractengineer07-11-2026
- I get the point totally. We live in the snowflake society where some riders forget they are getting paid to ride and get results. When they have a few issues they try to look outside of the real issue instead of themselves. It odd so many of the team are making no complaints and getting on with their job. If you do not like what you do find another job simples. Tough love as my mum would say.paultryan200207-11-2026
- many people advise him to grow slowly and rather do giro and/or vuelta instead of tdf. but i can totally understand that he is not satisfied with taking over once pogi declines, but instead beat him in his prime. so if he goes for tdf again, i‘m all for it. let‘s hope that pogi recovers soon!Ketterechts07-11-2026
- So gracious to offer something no-one would be prepared to pay for. The Giro is not the Tour and doesn’t command the same interest or attract the same “elite” (those willing to pay to be a part of something they consider has ego boosting potential). Roadside viewing will always largely remain free for everyone outside circuits. Introduction of a symbolic entrance to mountain climbs is worthy of exploration. Asking 1-2€ isn’t going to repulse real fans (most will spend 50-100€ on their outing that day all things included) but will prevent a portion of the total knobhead thrillseekers who will join in any large gathering as long as it’s free, just because they’re attracted to crowds, without which it it difficult for them to work up their anti-social behaviour.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- How is radio going to help when someone went over a cliff or bridge or off the roadside into a forest unnoticed and is laying there unconscious?Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- Yep, next we’ll be accusing F1 drivers of avoiding Le Mans.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- But on what is that opinion based? Are you holding him to a different standard than others? Are you saying he should do learn to like something he doesn’t Are you saying he hasn’t achieved enough Are you saying he pretends to be better than his results? It’s actually a really strange opinion to oust if you consider it objectively or rationally. Try applying it to others or yourself by asking if not EVERYONE should then be doing more? Nobody in athletics or swimming gets criticism for not expanding their repertoire when a rival or someone else does. In fact, most who move to another event get accused of running from their rival. Opinions are boring, the reasons behind them are what count.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- for a medical chief to throw things like is just bad. There are already radios which were banned for spectacle. allow radios. Gps trackers are not a complete solutionabstractengineer07-11-2026
- any rider less than 25 whether they are really ready for the position of leadership of GT is probably not the case. I think Pogi himself suffered when he was defeated by Jonas in the TDF twice. But that would be the team's job to ensure support so that they can bounce back. It requires a team and time to get back up and win after getting knocked down.abstractengineer07-11-2026
- I'm very glad he got the big late Quickstep Vuelta win and I hope he has a few left for Euskaltel-Euskadi.flyer07-11-2026
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Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) is the champion of the 2024 Giro d'Abruzzo, a race revived after 17 years. 🏆🇰🇿 Abruzzo took Sicilia's place in the calendar but the winner remained the same, the ice cold Luts who smacked the UAE superteam. It was nice to see this. #IlGirodAbruzzo
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