XDS Astana announce climber heavy lineup for La Vuelta 2025 including Fortunato, Tejada, Poels, Higuita & Lopez

Teams and fans alike are counting down the days until the 2025 Vuelta a Espana kicks off on the 23rd of April. For the XDS Astana Team, it marks another chance to pick up vital UCI points in their fight against World Tour relegation.

For La Vuelta 2025, it seems Astana's target is in the mountains. Packing their team with plenty of experienced and proven climbing nous, Astana bring a core of Lorenzo Fortunato - already King of the Mountains at the Giro d'Italia earlier this year, Harold Tejada - fresh off the back of completing the Tour de France earlier this summer, Wout Poels - a stage winner at the Vuelta and the Tour in recent years and Sergio Higuita - a stage winner at La Vuelta all the way back in 2019 and a 14th overall finisher at the Tour earlier this summer.

24-year-old Colombian Harold Martin Lopez starts just his second ever Grand Tour, but the climber comes to the race in good form with four wins already added to his palmares in 2025. The vastly experienced Fausto Masnada, stage winner at the Giro and former Il Lombardia should also offer strong mountain support, or a threat from the breakaways.

Completing the team, Nicolas Vinokurov, son of team boss Alexander returns to La Vuelta for the second year in a row. And Italian talent Nicola Conci rounds out the lineup, completing what is - on paper at least - a team full of threats and capable of competing for stage wins and GC success this Grand Tour. Whether it plays out like that for Astana on the road, only time will tell.

Lorenzo Fortunato
Harold Tejada
Wout Poels
Harold Martin Lopez
Sergio Higuita
Fausto Masnada
Nicola Conci
Nicolas Vinokurov