Astana announced its Vuelta a Espana team

Kazakhstan cycling team Astana has defined its squad to compete in Vuelta a Espana 2011 cycling race, Tengrinews.kz reports referring to Astana team official website. Andrey Kashechkin, who has returned to Astana recently, will be the leader of the team at the race. The team consists of the following cyclists: Fredrik Kessiakoff (Sweden), Robert Kiserlovski (Croatia), Andrey Kashechkin (Kazakhstan), Alexandr Dyachenko (Kazakhstan), Enrico Gasparotto (Italy), Josep Jufre (Spanish), Tanel Kangert (Estonia), Andrey Mizurov (Kazakhstan) and Evgeny Petrov (Russia). “We have a strong team, especially for the mountain racing. In addition, Andrey Kashechkin is very motivated now. We put our hope in Gasaprotto, who can try to win a stage. Our goal is to have a member of our team among the leaders in one of the categories at every stage. Regarding the overall standings, we are targeting the Top 10 or Top 5," the team manager Giuseppe Martinelli said. The race starts on August 20 and finishes on September 11 in Spain. Kashechkin who is going to replace Aleksandr Vinikurov as the leader of the team announced that he was going to fight for victory and expected to be in the Top 5. Vuelta a Espana is the one of the three most prestigious bicycle races of the season, along with Tour de France and Giro d’Italia. Vincenzo Nibali form Italy won the last year race in Spain. Aleksandr Vinokurov was first in 2006.