Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) is looking forward to the Ardennes Classics, which begin on Sunday with the Amstel Gold Race. The Kazakh won Liège-Bastogne-Liège last year but it is the Dutch race, which he won in 2003, that means more to him for personal reasons.
“I am very excited before leaving for the Netherlands and Belgium,” said Vinokourov. “The Amstel Gold Race, this Sunday, is a race that is close to my heart. In 2003 I had won it a few weeks after the death of my friend Andreï Kivilev.
“It was the first great Classic that I won,” he explained. “I had dedicated it to Kivi because it was also his victory. This was the outcome of our sacrifices for years, our work, but also the life we had chosen when we left our country so young. With Kivi, we took part in this great adventure in the west but unfortunately he wasn’t there to see that we hadn’t done it for nothing.”
It is now just over eight years since Kivilev was killed after crashing in Paris-Nice, but Vino still remembers the rider that was his best friend.
“Even more when I take the start of Paris-Nice, where he died, but also before the Amstel,” he said, “because I remember my immense emotion. This year I started the season more quietly, more ‘piano’; it was done on purpose to get in shape, first for the Ardennes classics and then for Tour de France.”
Vinokourov, and the Astana team too, has started the 2011 season quietly; the team has taken just two wins so far, with Vinokourov’s stage win in the Vuelta al Pais Vasco and Rémy Di Gregorio’s stage of Paris-Nice. Nevertheless, with the big races of the season approaching, Vinokourov feels that he and the team are on the right track.
“Since the Tour of Basque Country, I'm sure,” he said. “I rode a very good race with a stage win as a reward. I believe in being honest, even if some are worried because our results are a little quiet for the moment, I tell them that we must allow a little time.
“Our main events of the season are approaching; we will take stock after the Tour de France,” he added. “It doesn’t show an understanding of this sport to draw conclusions for the season when it has only just begun.
Astana has undergone a number of changes in its line up compared to last year, with Alberto Contador taking virtually all of the team’s Spanish contingent with him to Saxo Bank-SunGard. He is convinced that the season can be a success though, even without the Tour de France winner.
“I’ve always been optimistic and perhaps even more this year,” he said. “We have a big challenge ahead of us with a team that was rebuilt after the departure of Alberto Contador. Everyone knows what to do; it will pay off in the coming weeks, it is a certainty. We all work in the same direction with the same desire to show our jersey and to raise the colours of Kazakhstan.
“It starts from this Sunday in Amstel Gold Race.”
Alongside 2003 winner Vinokourov, last year’s third place Enrico Gasparotto will be co-captain for Amstel Gold. Aussie sprinter Allan Davis was to have been part of the team, but he is suffering with a fever and will be replaced by Swede Fredrik Kessiakoff.
Astana team for the Amstel Gold Race:
Alexandre Vinokourov, Assan Bazayev, Rémy Di Gregorio, Dmitriy Fofonov, Andriy Grivko, Enrico Gasparotto, Maxim Iglinskiy and Fredrik Kessiakoff