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The Astana team underwent a revolution during the winter but Spain’s Alberto Contador stayed on board, meaning the Kazakhstan team has the 2009 UCI World Ranking and Tour de France winner in its line-up for 2010.

27 year-old Contador has won every major stage race he has ridden during his career. His perfectly combined time trialling and climbing ability makes him a multi-talented rider and explains why he dominated the UCI World Ranking.

Contador has made it clear he will again target the Tour de France in 2010 but has also included Paris-Nice and the Vuelta al Pais Vasco on his list of goals for the season. He is already favourite to top the 2010 UCI World Ranking.

Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer, Andreas Klöden, Yaroslav Popovych and Team Manager Johan Bruyneel have all moved to the new RadioShack team, taking eight other riders with them. However new team manager Yvon Sanquer of France has worked hard to quickly rebuild the team, with the help and experience of Italian directeurs sportifs Giuseppe Martinelli and Guido Bontempi.

New signings for 2010 include 2006 Tour de France winner Oscar Pereiro of Spain, stage race rider Andriy Grivko from the Ukraine, experienced Italians Paolo Tiralongo and Enrico Gasparotto, hard working Slovenian Gorazd Stangelj and the fast finishing Allan Davis of Australia.

Contador has his own group of Spanish team mates, with Jesus Hernandez, David della Fuente, Daniel Navarro, Benjamin Noval all totally dedicated to their team leader.

Also wearing the sky blue and white Astana team clothing is Kazakhstan national hero Alexandre Vinokourov. He is the natural team captain and will mentor talented Kazakhstan riders such as Assan Bazayev and Maxim Iglinskiy.

“It was a race against time to get the team ready because we started from scratch but I’m confident we can be competitive and that Alberto Contador can win the Tour de France yet again,” Sanquer said.