'Like Valverde at the start' - Scaroni tops Oman as Astana rack up 1,068 UCI points in one day

Scaroni sealed the general classification on Green Mountain, winning the stage ahead of teammate Cristian Rodriguez, who also finished second overall. Adam Yates briefly had the upper hand on the climb, but Scaroni recovered in time to sprint for the win and the race lead.

“Yates was the best,” Scaroni said to L'Equipe. “I suffered a lot. It was in the last 500 metres that I understood I was going to win overall.”

The result continues a run that has changed the shape of Scaroni’s career. He has eight victories in the last twelve months, including a stage at the Giro d’Italia, after taking only two wins in his first seven seasons as a professional.

Inside Astana, the explanation is not mystery, but maturation. Sports director Dmitriy Fofonov points to the years before the wins, and to the idea that numbers and potential still need time to become results.

“He doesn’t come from nowhere,” Fofonov said. “Dmitri Seidun, his manager at Gazprom, where Scaroni rode before joining Astana in 2022, was already telling me at the time that one of his riders had exceptional test results. That was Scaroni. But translating test results into race performance takes time and experience.”

Scaroni also credits changes inside the team and in his own approach.

“We changed a lot of things, preparation, nutrition. Every rider at Astana improved,” he said. “I changed everything. Before, I did not devote my life to the bike. Then I met a few people, like Diego Ulissi, who explained what I needed to change to truly believe in myself.”

Scaroni’s surge has been as much about conviction as it has been about results, and inside Astana the shift has not gone unnoticed. Yvon Ledanois, part of the team’s sports director group, reached for a familiar reference point.

“I feel like I’m seeing an early Valverde again. He has great confidence in his abilities,” said Yvon Ledanois, who managed the Spaniard at Caisse d’Epargne.

While Scaroni’s Oman win brought the headlines, Astana’s broader Wednesday haul brought the noise. The team’s combined results in Oman and at the Asian Championships amounted to 1,068 UCI points, close to what a Grand Tour overall winner takes home. After last season’s widely discussed points campaign to secure their WorldTour status, it was always going to be read as more of the same.

Fofonov rejects that. “We only thought about victory,” he said to Wielerflits. “Everything extra was a bonus.”

He insists the context has changed since 2025, when the team’s position made points a necessity rather than a by product.

“We are in a totally different situation than last year,” Fofonov said. “We were in trouble. The points were necessary, so we made a one time plan, against our nature, only to secure our licence. We have always been a team that rides for victories. I still believe the points then come by themselves.”

Fofonov also pointed to the start of a new three year promotion and relegation cycle as another reason the team does not feel forced into early season accounting.

There is, however, an edge to his message. The team director acknowledged that Astana’s scoring in the biggest races was not strong enough last season, and he wants Scaroni’s form to translate into WorldTour level results.

“I hope this year they can also fight for prizes on the highest stage,” Fofonov said, referencing the Ardennes Classics as a target.