It opens with Nicola Conci playing a reasonably nice guitar riff, before the camera zooms in on the riders of XDS Astana and Alexandre Vinokourov opens his mouth. "What a year, the team is secure," the 52-year-old, well, raps.
Welcome to the third Astana rap. The 90-second long video features many of the WorldTour team's riders, including Alberto Bettiol, Nicolas Vinokourov and Aaron Gate, as well as other stars. It's a celebration of the team retaining its position in the WorldTour, its 20th anniversary, as well as a bit of a mission statement. It's a lot.
On social media, XDS Astana posted: "Celebrating our 20th anniversary and a successful 2025 season in the style we love the most."
The lyrics are pretty straightforward, and lip-synced. "We represent Kazakhstan. The world already knows. Now China joins our side, the power clearly shows." China is where XDS bikes, the team's co-sponsor, is from, and that line accompanies a shot of rider Haoyu Su.
Gate continues, walking past bikes beings assembled: "X-Lab bikes are lightning fast, any hill we climb with speed. Our rivals lose the chase, we're in front we take the lead."
Next is Bettiol, who appears to be in a hotel lobby, flanked by two members of staff. "Turn on the TV, you see us in the group. Blue colours shining bright, 20 years still in the loop," he raps.
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Next up is a room of staff, with head of performance Vasilis Anastopoulos saying "everyone knows our style like family close and tight", before Davide Ballerini adds: "seasons come and go, but we still stay in the light."
That's just the first 30 seconds, and there is more to come. The chorus goes: "We are one big team, we chase one big goal. We aim for the top, with one true soul. For 20 years you've seen, our wins it's known. Have we run out of steam? No way we're strong!"
It does all rhyme or half-rhyme, and I wonder if someone wrote this, or whether it was just the work of AI... Also, how did they decide who would actually take part? There are some good English speakers notable by their absence.
The team's season begins at the Tour Down Under on 20 January, so we don't have long to wait to see if the new song galvanises them to new heights.
Adam is Cycling Weekly’s news editor – his greatest love is road racing but as long as he is cycling, he's happy. Before joining CW in 2021 he spent two years writing for Procycling. He's usually out and about on the roads of Bristol and its surrounds.
Before cycling took over his professional life, he covered ecclesiastical matters at the world’s largest Anglican newspaper and politics at Business Insider. Don't ask how that is related to riding bikes.
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