The XDS Astana Team is the first to announce it's Tour de France lineup this Tuesday and the Kazakh team are going to France with a lot of firepower to hunt for stage wins in all terrains.
The team will have Harold Tejada present perhaps not only as a stage hunter but also with the goal of participating in the battle for the overall classification. The Colombian crashed out of the recent Criterium du Dauphiné whilst sitting in a strong position overall but taking into consideration his Top10 results at Paris-Nice and UAE Tour, he could well pursue the same objective in the Grand Tour.
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The team will have Sergio Higuita, Clément Champoussin and Simone Velasco as stage hunters in the tougher hilly stages, all explosive riders who pack a strong sprint; whilst on the flatter days Yevegeniy Fedorov could prove to be an interesting breakaway hunter.
Cees Bol will be going for the bunch sprints in the race and will likely be the best card, having as leadout men Davide Ballerini and Mike Teunissen who can also sprint for their own results but at the same time look for breakaways in which they can succeed as quality rouleurs.
XDS Astana Team for Tour de France:
Davide Ballerini
Cees Bol
Clément Champoussin
Yevgeniy Fedorov
Sergio Higuita
Mike Teunissen
Harold Tejada
Simone Velasco
Davide Ballerini
Cees Bol
Clément Champoussin
Yevgeniy Fedorov
Sergio Higuita
Mike Teunissen
Harold Tejada
Simone Velasco
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