Cycling: Astana Pro Team 2013 squad presented in Astana

Kazakhstan's Astana Pro Team presented its squad for the 2013 season in Astana, Tengrinews.kz reports citing the press-service of the team. There are 29 cyclists in the team at present, including ten Kazakhstan nationals, ten Italians, two Slovenians, one American, one Ukrainian, one Russian, one Dane, one Belgian, one Estonian and one Swiss cyclist. Kairat Kelimbetov, president of Kazakhstan Cycling Federation said: “Astana team is our dream team and we have big tasks ahead of us in the new season, including Nibali’s victory in Giro d’Italia race and excellent performance at Tour de France. The today's event also opens the training sessions for Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Astana Pro Team is an excellent base for the implementation of these ambitious goals.” Kazakhstan Olympic champion Alexandre Vinokourov was appointed new general manager of Astana Pro Team. According to him, the team intends to win all races that it will participate in and its members have been carefully selected and are well prepared both for one-day races and for the Top-3 Grand Tour marathon stage races that include Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana. Vinokourov added that he was going to promote cycling in Kazakhstan.Earlier it was reported that a one-day cycling race would be held in Kazakhstan in October 2013. The cycling team’s press-service reminded that Astana Pro Team finished the 2012 season with many victories, “including Maksim Iglinskiy triumph in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege race and Enrico Gasparotto win in the Amstel Gold Race. The cyclists of the team managed to win two Giro d’Italia stages and one individual start stage of Vuelta a Espana race.) Pro Team Astana 2013 team will consist of: Valerio Agnoli (Italy), Fabio Aru (Italy), Assan Bazayev (Kazakhstan), Borut Bozic (Slovenia), Janez Brajkovic (Slovenia), Aleksandr Dyachenko (Kazakhstan), Enrico Gasparotto (Italy), Francesco Gavazzi (Italy), Andriy Grivko (Ukraine), Dmitriy Gruzdev (Kazakhstan), Jacopo Guarnieri (Italy), Andrea Guardini (Italy), Evan Huffman (USA), Maxim Iglinskiy (Kazakhstan), Andrey Kashechkin (Kazakhstan), Tanel Kangert (Estonia), Arman Kamyshev (Kazakhstan), Fredrik Kessiakoff (Sweden), Alexey Lutsenko (Kazakhstan), Dmitriy Muravyev (Kazakhstan), Simone Ponzi (Italy), Egor Silin (Russia), Kevin Seeldraeyers (Belgium), Paolo Tiralongo (Italy), Ruslan Tleubayev (Kazakhstan), Alessandro Vanotti (Italy), Andrey Zeits (Kazakhstan), Jakob Fuglsang (Denmark) and Vincenzo Nibali (Italy).