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German media speculated this week that Klöden would join Team High Road but the number two of the 2004 and 2006 Tour
de France announced on his personal website www.andreas-kloeden.com today that he signed for one more year with Astana. Klöden said: "After long consideration and talks with various teams I
decided to stay for one more year with Astana and reached an agreement with Johan Bruyneel."
Klöden said that it was decisive for him that Astana has first class riders and an experienced and competent organisation.
Another important role for Klöden's decision was the ccoperation between Astana and Danish anti-doping specialist Rasmus Damsgaard.
Klöden said: "The team will seriously and lastingly contribute to a clean future in cycling."
Klöden's main
goal will be next years Tour de France. But he has other goals as well. In an interview with German website radsport-aktiv.de
Klöden said: "Ofcourse winning the Tour is still my goal. Although I crashed I had good chances to get on the podium in 2007."
Klöden continued by saying: "But there are a lot of other races and Tours which would be attractive for me. My preparation
for the upcoming season have already started."
2008 roster Astana
Assan Bazayev, Janez Brajkovic, Antonio Colom,
Alberto Contador, Koen de Kort, Thomas Frei,
Vladimir Gusev, René Haselbacher, Chris Horner,
Maxim Iglinsky, Sergei Ivanov, Benoit Joachim,
Aaron Kemps, Roman Kireyev, Andreas Klöden,
Berik Kupeshov, Julien
Mazet, Andrei Mizourov,
Steve Morabito, Dimitri Muravyev, Daniel Navarro,
Benjamin Noval, Sergio Paulinho, Gregory Rast,
José
Luis Rubiera, Michael Schär, Tomas Vaitkus,
Sergei Yakovlev, Levi Leipheimer, Andrey Zeits
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After the scandals in 2007, Astana changed its management and new team manager Johan Bruyneel signed new sports directors
as well. Marc Biver, Mario Kummer, Adriano Baffi and Giovanni Fidanza were replaced by Johan Bruyneel, Alain Gallopin,
Sean Yates, Viatcheslav Ekimov, Alexander Shefer and Andrei Teteriuk.
Several riders left the team as well. Alexander Vinokourov, Andrey Kashechkin, Matthias Kessler and Eddy Mazzoleni
already had to leave the team when Marc Biver was still in charge. These riders were sacked after they tested
positive or were connected with doping cases (Mazzoleni).
Other riders who left the team are Paolo Savoldelli (LPR), Igor Abakoumov, Guennadi Mikhailov (both Mitsubishi-Jartazi) and
José Antonio Redondo (Andalucia) signed with a new team. Kazach riders Maxim Gourov, Alexey Kolessov and Yevgeny
Sladkov were replaced for their younger fellow countrymen Roman Kireyev, Berik Kupeshov en Andrey Zeits.
With Alberto
Contador, Levi Leipheimer, Tomas Vaitkus, Sergio Paulinho, Janez Brajkovic, Benjamin Noval, José Luis Rubiera and Vladimir
Gusev, Bruyneel took 8 riders with him from Discovery Channel. Chris Horner came from Predictor-Lotto.
The first training camp of the team will take place at Javea (Spain) from December 10 until December 18. A second training
camp will take place from January 23 until February 4 in Albuquerque (USA).
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