Team Astana Take the Start in the Giro d' Italia
13-05-2008
Team Astana were not initially invited to participate in the race, but that changed just a week ago. One week is not the ideal amount of time to prepare for a 3 week race, but Team Astana is one of the best teams in the world and are planning on rising to the challenge.
The first 'Grand Tour' of the year got under way in the Italian town of Palermo with a team time trial. Team Astana finished in 7th place, just 29 seconds behind Team Slipstream in first. Although not the best of starts, it sets a solid position from which to attack later in the race. The team will most likely be playing it safe over the next few 'sprint' stages before launching their attacks in the gruelling mountain stages later in the race. Team Astana knows what it takes to win a Grand Tour and will be aiming to finish on the podium, depsite their less than ideal preparation.
With quality riders like Levi Leipheimer, Alberto Contador and Andreas Kloden the team still has a good chance of a strong finish. In fact, the team has had a great start to the year with Leipheimer winning the Tour of California, Contador winning the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon and Kloden winning the Tour de Romandie which finished just last week. With this recent good form, Kloden could be the teams best hope of a podium finish. We will have to wait and see.
For daily updates on how the team is doing, check their website.
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