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Kazakhstan’s cyclists have claimed all three podium positions in the final individual Asia Tour rankings for the first time. Yevgeniy Fedorov of XDS Astana Team finished the 2026 season first, followed by teammate Nicolas Vinokurov in second and Alexey Lutsenko of Switzerland’s NSN Cycling Team in third. XDS is short for Xidesheng, a Chinese bicycle manufacturer and Astana’s title sponsor, while NSN stands for Never Say Never, the sports and entertainment company that co-owns Lutsenko’s team.
Fedorov earned 666.33 points, while Vinokurov finished with 576.33. Another XDS Astana Team rider, China’s Haoyu Su, placed fourth with 445.33 points. This means riders from the team occupied three of the top four positions in the rankings.
The Asia Tour is a series of road races across Asia overseen by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), the international governing body for competitive cycling. Its individual and national rankings also count points earned by Asian riders in UCI races elsewhere in the world.
Kazakhstan’s riders have held the top position in the individual Asia Tour standings since 2018. Over nine seasons, Lutsenko has won the rankings seven times and Fedorov twice. Kazakhstan previously placed two riders in the top three on several occasions.
Kazakhstan also finished the season first in the UCI Asia Tour national rankings, accumulating 2,339.99 points. Its lead over Mongolia and Japan, which finished second and third, exceeded 1,200 points. Kazakhstan has finished first in these standings every year since 2017. Iran was the last country to finish ahead of Kazakhstan, in 2016.
XDS Astana Development Team, the Kazakh cycling club’s development squad, finished third in the Asia Tour team rankings, behind China’s Li Ning Star and Thailand’s Roojai Insurance Winspace. This is the best result in the development team’s history.
In the UCI world team rankings, the main XDS Astana Team finished the season in sixth place, while XDS Astana Development Team ranked fourth among continental teams.
For Alexey Lutsenko, this was the final season of his professional career. He discussed his retirement plans after winning the men’s road race at the Asian Games in Japan on September 23, claiming a national-record sixth Asian Games gold medal.
Dmitry Pokidaev