Competing in what could be the final major event of his career, Olympic road race champion Alexandre Vinokourov has been confirmed as leading the Astana team in next Tuesday’s Clásica San Sebastian.
The squad’s line-up for the race has been confirmed today and the Kazakhstan rider will be joined by Alexandr Dyachenko, Francesco Gavazzi, Assan Bazayev, Simone Ponzi, Kevin Seeldraeyers, Egor Silin and Paolo Tiralongo.
“We are coming to the San Sebastián with a good team that will give it their all to get on the podium. Francesco Gavazzi and Simone Ponzi have got all the right attributes to do really well and Alexandr Vinokurov will, as ever, gives 100% to add yet another flourish to the end of his incredible career,” said directeur sportif Alexandr Shefer.
The lumpy course favours attacking, explosive riders and if Vinokourov has been able to prolong his good form, he will be one to watch. He was second in the race in 2010, reaching the finish in the same time as Carlos Sastre and the winner Luis León Sánchez.
Vinokourov had originally indicated that he would retire after crashing badly in last year’s Tour de France. He then decided to return to end his career on a better note and announced his retirement after taking Olympic gold in London.
Very soon afterwards he opted to compete in some more races, saying that he would do some criteriums and the Casica San Sebastian.
It remains to be seen if this will indeed be his final event, or if he will prolong his career again.