Any Western European country has the same political problems in determining their government funding: More money for education, or do we rather invest in health-care? No such problems in Kazachstan, a cyclingteam is more important than those (in Western countries) socially acquired feats.
Kazachstan needs to be put on the map, and what better way than to go through a sport in which you know you've got some accomplished people already? That's right, professional cycling. Former chair of the cabinet and good friend of Vinokourov, Daniyal Akhmetov, invited all Kazachstan's riders to tea and filled in the blanks with some (very good) foreign riders.


Of course, the pull-effect this created led to lure many of Kazachstan's riders into the Astana team. Apart from Bazajev, Kashechkin, Yakovlev and Vinokourov, who were already within the 'Saiz-team', this initiated the following by Gourov, Iglinskiy, Kolessov, Mizurov, Muravyev and Sladkov, all countymen.


It wouldn't be fair to this Swiss licensed team to claim that the number of home-riders doesn't add up to much. Another Vinokourov friend, Walter Godefroot, came back from shopping on his own (Discovery, T-Mobile and Phonak) and bringing home nine riders to the team. Internationally accomplished riders like Colom, Haselbacher, Ivanov, Kessler, Mazzoleni, Klöden and Savoldelli do add a lot of extra quality and experience to manager Biver's Astana squad. With this multi-talented scope of riders, Astana should be able to put their best foot forward in any race. Maybe the "young-ones" Kemps and Bazayev still come up short in the mass-sprints, but the strong René Haselbacher could be their mentor and teach them the tricks of the trade.


Ivanov and Kessler were quickly snatched from T-Mobile, Astana's new weapons in the classics. The German looked very promising a few years back, but never really succeeded in reaching the top echelons of the cycling world. Now he's on his own feet with Astana and will soon show us if he's good enough to play the part.


As far as Grand-Tour-racing is concerned, the team has ample possibilities. Salvoldelli for the Giro d'Italia, Klöden and Vinokourov for the Tour and Kashechkin for the Vuelta a España. On top of that they have a rider who's well suited to have a go at the smaller stage-races in Colom, apart from being an excellent helper in the GT's.


After Vinokourov's first appearance a few years back, we're not that surprised anymore about the "Eastern invasion" into Pro-cycling. A number of talented riders have followed Vino's example and are now accomplished riders themselves. So this team is not just a random mix of professional cyclists, they're more likely to fight it out for "King and country" than any other team in today's ProTour, which might be the decisive edge they're looking for in some races.


New:
Steve Morabito, Gregory Rast, Michael Schär (Phonak), Benoît Joachim, Guennadi Mikhailov, Paolo Savoldelli (Discovery Channel), Sergei Ivanov, Matthias Kessler, Andreas Klöden, Eddy Mazzoleni (T-Mobile), Antonio Colom (Caisse d´Epargne), René Haselbacher (Gerolsteiner), Maxim Iglinskiy (Milram), Julien Mazet (Auber ´93), Andrey Mizurov (Capec), Igor Abakoumov, Dmitriy Muravyev (Jartazi)


The Astana team originated from the remaining Liberty-Seguros-Würth team, led by Manolo Saiz.