Astana confirm Tour Down Under team

Eurosport - Fri, 19 Dec 09:11:00 2008

Seven-times Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong's Astana team roster for next month's Tour Down Under in Australia includes three riders from the 2008 Giro d'Italia.

CYCLING 2008 Astana Armstrong Contador - 0

Also riding for Astana as Armstrong makes his return to professional cycling is Jose Luis Ruberia who rode in five of the Texan's Tour de France-winning teams.

"We all know that Lance Armstrong is a champion, but the rest of his Astana team mates heading Down Under should not be underestimated," race director Mike Turtur said.

Assan Bazayev, Steve Morabito and Maxim Iglinskiy finished seventh on stage one of the 2008 Giro d'Italia for the Kazakh-backed, Luxembourg-based Astana. Team rider Alberto Contador, who will not be taking part in Tour Down Under, won the event overall.

"With experienced Grand Tour riders like Bazayev, Morabito, Iglinskiy and Ruberia, I predict fierce competition from Astana from day one," Turtur said.

The full rider roster for Astana for the Tour Down Under is Lance Armstrong, Assan Bazayev, Jesus Hernandez, Michael Schar, Maxim Iglinskiy, Steve Morabito and Jose Luis Rubiera.

In September, Armstrong announced he would race in 2009 with Astana.

The 37-year-old said then he would start with January's Tour Down Under in Australia and close the season with the Tour de France in July, which he won seven times before retiring in 2005.

The Tour Down Under, raced around Adelaide's environs, runs from January 18-25.

AFP

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  1. Lance has said he will wear Livestrong kit for­ training, and Astana for races.

    From retyer49, on Mon 22 Dec 3:51PM

  2. I hope Astana lets him wear his LiveStrong kit all­ yesr, I think Lance would like to :-)

    From Frank , on Sun 21 Dec 8:36PM

  3. Every year when a cyclist joins a new Team he must wear­ his old Team Kit for the remainder of that year even­ while training with his new Team. In Armstrongs case he­ is not bound to any existing Team so he can wear­ whatever he and the Team agree too. He probably will­ not wear the Astana Team Kit until Jan 1 when his­ contract begins.

    From Frank , on Sun 21 Dec 8:14AM

  4. will lance race in astana kit or livestrong kit....does­ neone know?

    From hamishhore, on Sat 20 Dec 5:51PM

  5. Look at them... Contador will never fill Lance's­ shoes!

    From Attila, on Sat 20 Dec 3:19PM

  6. I have the feeling everyone is going to expect Lance to­ come in and wipe the floor with everyone in his first­ race back. However, I expect to see a Lance of old just­ riding around with the peloton gaining some extra­ endurance miles in race conditions for this race, in a­ build up to a relatively larger performance at the Tour­ of California. But, I will still expect to see all the­ commentators in cycling say that "he is past­ it", "can't hang on to the young­ guns" etc. when its the exact same as what he did­ from 2003 onwards. I guess we just have to wait and­ see, but from Astana it will be Basayev in the sprints­ and Morabito for overall.

    From David, on Sat 20 Dec 2:05PM
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