The famous surname is no coincidence: Nicolas is the son of team boss and 2012 Olympic champion Alexandre Vinokourov, but he has been earning his stripes the patient way, through the Astana development team, Asian stage races and two completed Vueltas. A tall, diesel-engined stage-racer in the making, he gets his Tour de France debut at 23 as the team's youngest rider. His job: carry bottles, survive, and learn.
Palmarès
- Asian U23 time trial champion (2024)
- Kazakhstani U23 road race champion (2022, 2023)
- Young rider classification, Tour of Japan (2024)
- Young rider classification, Tour de Langkawi (2025)
- Finisher, Vuelta a España (2024: 128th; 2025: 105th)
Cut-out factHe turns 24 on 7 July — mid-race, during the Tour's first week — and was born in Nice, France, while his father was racing in Europe; his twin brother Alexandre also raced as a pro.
The squad
Riding the 2026 Tour with Sergio Higuita, Davide Ballerini, Aaron Gate, Max Kanter, Harold Tejada, Mike Teunissen, Simone Velasco — see the full XDS Astana team page.
Portrait: AI paper-collage render (gpt-image-2) after a reference photograph — source: Wikimedia Commons, author: Fukumoto, license: CC BY-SA 4.0.
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