“We have talked a lot with Miguel Ángel López, we did it this year precisely about these new responsibilities.” Days ago, Astana Qazaqstan Team General Manager Aleksandr Vinokurov, He acknowledged that within the team they expect Superman to assume a leading role in 2023.
After the retirement of Vincenzo Nibali, who ended his career in the last edition of Il Lombardiathe Colombian is emerging as the rider who will lead the Kazakh team in next year’s great challenges. They even boast of López as the new head of ranks.
“Our leader Superman López is already looking forward to the new cycling season!”recently published the Astana.
Astana pressures Miguel Ángel López to deliver results
The team has yet to officially announce its 2023 schedule., so the races with which López will start his season are not yet known. However, in Astana they demand great results from him as the main leader.
“Years go by and you have to do something, otherwise there are young people who arrive and can overcome it. He has never won a Grand Tour and we have to focus on the next one, above all that he does it from the beginning of the season, so as not to make the same mistakes as this year ”, Vinokurov pointed out in Bici Pro.
The challenge of replacing Nibali will not be easy, because during his stay in Astana, the Italian rider won twice the Giro d’Italia (2013 and 2016) and was also champion of the Tour de France (2014).
Superman, for his part, closed 2022 with just one victory, in stage 4 of the Tour of the Alps. He competed in 17 races, he withdrew from the Giro in one of the first days Y in the Vuelta a España he finished in fourth position in the general classification.