These are the Chinese bikes that the Astana team will ride in 2025

After the incorporation of the Chinese firm XDS Carbon-Tech, one of the largest carbon manufacturers worldwide that also produces bicycles, there has been much speculation about which bike the Astana team will use next season. A question that will be answered in the coming weeks when the team begins its preseason training camps.

XDS, the new owner of Astana, seeks to promote its X-Lab bike brand

XDS Carbon-Tech, the new owner of the majority of Astana team shares, lands in the World Tour with clear ideas. The Chinese company is one of the top carbon fiber manufacturers worldwide. It also had a wide range of open mold frames in its catalog, some of which ended up in Europe under minor brands.

However, XDS Carbon-Tech wants to go further and has created the X-Lab brand under which it intends to market its own range of bikes, ready to compete with the most reputable brands in the market as they are promoted at the highest level of road cycling.

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In recent days, various publications have appeared on Chinese social media outlining the X-Lab range, including their road bikes. At the top of their range, we find the machines that Astana will presumably use, in fact, a unit of their aerodynamic model AD9 was already seen in the team's truck during the Tour de France.

It is also expected that they will have access to the climbing model of X-Lab, called RS9.

The catalogs that have appeared on various Chinese social media platforms highlight the intense development that X-Lab has carried out to provide Astana with a World Tour level bike, especially in the case of the aerodynamic bike, in the development of which former cyclist and new Astana performance manager Alex Dowsett has collaborated. The brand has tested this bike in the Silverstone wind tunnel with results that they claim have surpassed other renowned models on the market.

We should expect to see the final bikes at the team's first winter training camp, which will take place between December 7 and 19.