Bad times, just like the good times, don’t last forever. Luck changes, as do performances. After a mostly barren few years of Grand Tour racing for XDS-Astana, seasons in which they flirted with relegation from the WorldTour and embarked on a global voyage in the quest for precious UCI points, they are now only one stage behind rivalling UAE Team Emirates-XRG as this Giro d’Italia’s most prolific team. 

First came Guillermo Thomas Silva’s unexpected victory on stage two in Bulgaria, a triumph that catapulted him into the pink jersey for two days and made him a star in his home country of Uruguay, briefly knocking football off the backpages. It was a heartwarming tale – an international success story for a team that is now part-Chinese, part-Kazakh, with riders from 15 different countries.

Then came another victory that hadn’t been predicted beforehand, Italian Davide Ballerini, in his sixth participation at his home Grand Tour, beating the truly fastmen in Naples. He was helped by a crash 200m from the finish, of course, but it was also another gratifying win. Two years before, Ballerini had been a central figure in Mark Cavendish’s leadout train when the Briton claimed his record-setting 35th Tour de France stage win. Here was a dedicated domestique finally getting his deserved moment of glory.

And then arrived the latest Astana success in this Giro – but based on current form and projection, not their last. 15 riders formed a big breakaway group for the 189km stage 13 from Alessandria to Verbania, and the peloton were more than happy to let them decide among themselves who’d be the winner, with race leader Afonso Eulálio and Jonas Vingegaard preferring to take it easy ahead of the first truly big mountain day out on Saturday. Music to the ears of many teams, including Astana who fielded Alberto Bettiol in the escape group.

The action essentially boiled down to the final 21km of racing which featured a fourth and a third category climb, and on the final ascent it was Andreas Leknessund of Uno-X Mobility who attacked first. He had finished second on stage eight and had learned his lesson after his defeat by man of the moment Jhonatan Narváez: be proactive rather than reactive. A change in tactic didn’t pay off: Bettiol went over the top of the Norwegian towards the summit of the climb and extended his lead on the subsequent descent, to win in Verbania by 26 seconds. Leknessund was second again.

“Today in theory I won already before the start because I had all my family here and my second family because my girlfriend and all her family are from Verbania, so I consider Verbania my second home,” Bettiol said afterwards, adding extra emotion to his victory. "Having all of them – my brother, my father, my mum, and all the people who have always been around me – it was already a victory for me. But winning like this is something I will take with me forever. It doesn't matter if it was two years since I won, but if I win like this, I'm happy to win every two years.”

This was Bettiol’s first WorldTour stage win in Europe since he won a stage of the 2021 Giro. Another uplifting story, another comeback tale, another account of riders in the shadows coming to the forefront. That’s what XDS-Astana have been all about these past 18 months. After the wretched years of 2022 (5 wins) and 2024 (Cavendish’s Tour stage was the only highlight), the team led by Alexander Vinokourov have completely changed their fortunes, led by the advice of a little-known data scientist, Morgan Saussine.

"I'm so happy to finally win in this jersey,” Bettiol added. “I'm happy because Vino [Vinokourov] really believed in me two years ago and he really wanted me in his team. Finally, I paid him back. I think, in general, that all of my teammates did a really amazing Giro so far, so I'm happy that I can also be part of this amazing Giro d'Italia for us."

Last year – and to a lesser extent this year– they were derided for points-hunting across Asia and Africa, and maximising their hauls in national and continental championships. But this season they’ve won in Paris-Nice (twice) and now three times in the Giro, the sport’s second biggest race. Only five WorldTour teams have won more than them all season – and that quintet are all what can be classed as a “superteam”. Astana do not fall into that bracket – yet. They’ve found a way to win despite not having the biggest of budgets and momentum is powering them onto ever greater success.

It’s a lesson to all teams, in particular those struggling right now such as Picnic-PostNL Picnic and EF Education-EasyPost, that the bad times don’t last forever. If a plan is devised and put in place, good times will return.