Astana's Andreas Klöden announced on his personal website andreas-kloeden.com that he will not start at this years Tour
of Germany. Instead the 2 times runner-up of the Tour de France (204 and 2006) will race the Vuelta a Espana. On Saturday
Klöden said: "Yesterday I talked with the sports directors [of Astana, editor] about my race programme and we decided that
I will race the Tour of Spain instead of the Tour of Germany."
Klöden continued: "As one of the three major tours per year, the Vuelta is very important for Astana, and of course
we want to win."
"We will do everything we can to put in a strong performance with a strong team," Klöden said.
"The first week I will use to warm up. I hope that I can play an important role in the decisive stages and make an
important contribution to support the team."
Klöden will fly to Spain on Wednesday. Astana captain Alberto Contador is one of the favourites to win the final grand
tour of the 2008 season. Earlier this year Contador has won the Giro d'Italia.
