The big cleaning in the Kazakh capital seems to have been for nothing. The (cheating) soul of the squad was cut out. Instead of local heroes Vinokourov and Kashechkin, the former Sovjet republic now has to cheer for Bazayev, the young Kupeshov, Kireyev and of course Maxim Iglinskiy.


But not to worry, the team didn’t lose any quality. On the contrary. Johan Bruyneel liked the new challenge and has with Contador, Leipheimer and Klöden three potential Tour winners in his team. Also riders like Vaitkus, Brajkovic and Gusev are no embarrassment for a team. But those of you who remember the joke of the team that went to the Tour de France, know that they didn’t go.


A miserable season lies ahead for the team, because the Tour organiser (ASO) also has control over many other races like Paris-Roubaix, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Paris-Nice. In those races where the team can start they will be able to start with a very strong squad. Half of the former Discovery Channel team came over with Bruyneel and is now combined with half the Astana team of last year.


Besides the neo’s Zeits and Kireyev and the from the very small team of Storez-Ledecq Marérieux arriving Kupeshov, Christopher Horner is the only new arrival without a Discovery of Astana background.


Next to the earlier mentioned two Kazakhs, also Gourov and Sladkov (A-Style), Kolessov (Ulan) and the Eastern-European Belgian Abakoumov (Mitsubishi-Jartazi) left the team. Not really a big loss in quality, which is different for the suspended Kessler, climber Redondo who will try his own success at the procontinental team of Andalucia and Savoldelli. The Italian packed his bags as soon as he heard Bruyneel would arrive. The both of them do not have a good relationship, to say the least. So ‘Il Falco’ returns to Italy in Team LPR where he will support Danilo Di Luca in the Giro d’Italia.


In the cobblestone classics Bruyneel will have a strong team with Gusev, Vaitkus, Ivanov, Muravyev, Rast, Schär, Haselbacher and De Kort. With Horner, Iglinskiy and Colom the team for the hilly classics doesn’t seem so impressive though. In the stage races on the other hand the team has plenty of experience and talent. Too bad though that they probably won’t have the opportunity to show their abilities this year at the big appointments.


In
Janez Brajkovic, Alberto Contador, Vladimir Gusev, Levi Leipheimer, Benjamin Noval, Sergio Paulinho, José Luis Rubiera, Tomas Vaitkus (Discovery Channel), Andrey Zeits, Roman Kireyev (neo), Chris Horner (Predictor-Lotto), Berik Kupeshov (Storez-Ledecq Matériaux)


Out
Igor Abakoumov, Guennadi Mikhailov (Mitsubishi-Jartazi), Maxim Gourov, Evgeny Sladkov (A-Style), Alexey Kolessov (Ulan), José Antonio Redondo (Andalucia-Cajasur), Paolo Savoldelli (Team LPR), Alexandre Vinokourov (retired), Eddy Mazzoleni, Andrey Kashechkin, Matthias Kessler (suspended)