About halfway into the racing season, XDS-Astana has done something we thought impossible late last year. Facing a staggering UCI points deficit in the battle to avoid relegation at the start of their 2025 campaign, Alexandre Vinokourov's team has hauled itself out of the relegation zone, at least for now.
For anyone needing a quick primer on the system, the top 18 teams across a three-season cycle are eligible for WorldTour status in the next cycle, meaning that any WorldTeams below 18th are officially relegation material and any ProTeams above 18th are officially promotion material. XDS-Astana closed out 2024, the second of three seasons in the current cycle, sitting 21st with a gap of some 4,700 points to the 18th-placed team at the time, Cofidis.
Oh how the tables have turned since then.
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