There's plenty of racing on the horizon before the 2010 Tour de France. But reigning titlist Alberto Contador will meet his new (and some returning) Astana teammates and staff for the first time next week to begin the Spanish star's title defense build-up.
The two-time Tour de France champion and the rest of the Astana staff and riders will have the team's first training camp Dec. 9-16 in Pisa, Italy.
The team's directors and many of its additional top riders of 2009, including Lance Armstrong, are gone. And the new Astana squad will have some surprising late additions and one conspicuous absence from the expected roster.
The absent rider will be Oscar Pereiro. The pending Astana contract of the 2006 Tour de France winner is now in dispute and the Spaniard is considering retirement.
Josep Jufré, a veteran Spanish climber is a surprise lated editon to the team
Here's the 2010 Astana roster:
Assan Bazayev, Alberto Contador, Valeriy Dmitriyev, Alexandr Dyachenko, David De la Fuente, Dmitry Fofonov, Maxim Gurov, Andriy Grivko, Josep Jufré, Jesús Hernández, Maxim Iglinskiy, Valentin Iglinskiy, Enrico Gasparotto, Romana Kireyev, Daniel Navarro, Benjamín Noval, Bolat Raimbekov, Sergey Renev, Mirko Salvaggi, Gorazd Stangelj, Paolo Tiralongo, Alexandre Vinokourov, Zeits Andrey
Comments
I hope they've got a couple of more surprises, because I thought the minimum roster was 25, and they've got 23. And Pereiro had signed for much less than his Caisse D'Epargen contract, so it's sad they can't come up with the cash to honor that amount. I thought he was a great addition, and would have really helped Alberto. Pereiro deserves a break, not to be forced out of cycling.
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