XDS Astana, in its previous guise as Astana Qazaqstan, may have supported Mark Cavendish to his record 35th Tour de France stage win, but otherwise the team had limited success in 2024.
But from dead last in the WorldTour team rankings in 2024, XDS Astana has pulled itself up the rankings and now appears to be clear of the relegation zone, despite a barren Tour de France so far.
With Christian Scaroni winning stage 16 of the 2025 Giro d’Italia, before scoring a 1-2 in the Giro's mountains classification and fourth overall in the team standings, the team has a new lease of life this year.
It has also changed bikes, with Chinese brand XDS coming in as co-title sponsor and bringing with it its X-Lab bikes, the AD9 aero bike and the RT9 climbing bike.
Less hefty than it looks
The AD9 is as chunky as they come, with all squared-off tube sections and a massive down tube.
Despite its looks and a deep-section Vision wheelset, we weighed Ballerini’s bike at exactly 7.5kg – not bad when you consider the Ridley Noah Fast 3.0 ridden by Uno-X Mobility’s Tobias Johannessen weighed in at 8.2kg.
At 1.83m tall, Ballerini is not short and isn't riding a smaller-sized frame either.
Dura-Ace groupset with big chainrings
XDS Astana is riding with Shimano Dura-Ace, for many years the most popular groupset among pro bikes at the Tour de France.
Ballerini has the big chainrings we’ve come to expect from pro bikes, in his case 56/44t. This is to improve chainline efficiency as much as offering super-high gears, enabling him to ride towards the middle of his 11-30t cassette more often.
There’s a Dura-Ace power meter, but whereas many pro bikes, including Jonas Vingegaard’s Cervélo S5, looked box-fresh ahead of the Tour, Ballerini’s power meter has clearly seen plenty of use.
Time trial tyres
Other components on XDS Astana’s X-Lab bikes come from Vision. That includes the cockpit and the wheels.
The Vision Metron 60 RS wheels, as you’d expect, are 60mm deep. Vision claims a 1,390g weight for its premium Metron wheels. They’re shod with Continental Grand Prix TT TR tubeless tyres, which we measured at 31.23mm wide at the front and 31.43mm wide at the rear.
The TT TR comes in 25mm and 28mm nominal widths only, so the extra width is due to the wheels’ 23mm internal rim width.
Ballerini’s Vision Metron 5D ACR Integrated 3K one-piece carbon cockpit comes in a 380mm width and with a 110mm stem length, although the forward sweep makes the effective bar reach longer.
Prologo supplies the bar tape and its 146g Scratch M5 PAS CPC saddle, with CPC grippy upper-surface areas and PAS central cut-out, sitting on Nack composite rails.
Specs | Davide Ballerini’s X-Lab AD9 for the 2025 Tour de France
- Frameset: X-Lab AD9
- Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace with 11-30t cassette
- Wheelset: Vision Metron 60 RS
- Power meter: Shimano Dura-Ace, 56-44t
- Tyres: Continental Grand Prix 5000 TT TR , 28mm
- Handlebar: Vision one-piece carbon
- Seatpost: X-Lab AD9
- Saddle: Prologo Scratch M5 PAS CPC, Nack rails
- Bottle cages: Tacx Deva
- Pedals: Shimano Dura-Ace
- Weight: 7.500kg
