A livewire puncheur from Bologna who out-foxed the favourites to become Italian champion in 2023, Velasco is at his best when the road tilts up and down all day. At Astana since 2022, he has become a reliable stage-hunter and a canny wheel for the hilly transition days that litter this Tour's route. Expect to see him in the escape when the profile looks like a saw blade.
Palmarès
- Italian national road race champion (2023)
- Trofeo Laigueglia winner (2019)
- Stage winner, Settimana Coppi e Bartali (2019)
- 7th, UCI Gravel World Championships (2023)
Cut-out factWeeks after trading his Italian champion's tricolore duties for knobbly tyres, he rode to 7th at the 2023 UCI Gravel World Championships — proof his bike-handling goes well beyond tarmac.
The squad
Riding the 2026 Tour with Sergio Higuita, Davide Ballerini, Aaron Gate, Max Kanter, Harold Tejada, Mike Teunissen, Nicolas Vinokurov — see the full XDS Astana team page.
Portrait: AI paper-collage render (gpt-image-2) after a reference photograph — source: Wikimedia Commons, author: filip bossuyt from Kortrijk, Belgium, license: CC BY 2.0.
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