The Astana cycling team continue to recruit Kazakhstani natives back to its team and has now announced Dmitriy Muravyev will leave Team RadioShack to be part of its roster next year. This comes after the team signed Andrey Kashechkin again, to return in time for the upcoming Vuelta a España.
Muravyev previously rode for Astana between 2007 and 2009 before leaving with manager Johan Bruyneel to be part of the then newly-set up RadioShack team.
"We are happy to welcome Dmitriy Muravyev back in Astana. Dmitriy is one of the most experienced Kazak cyclists," said commercial director of Astana team, Dr. Aidar Makhmetov.
"With Dmitriy, we also signed best current Kazakh riders such as Andrey Kashechkin and Andrey Mizourov. It was the goal of our management and headers of Kazakhstan Cycling Federation. Gueseppe Martinelli is working with signing of other cyclists and with forming of the main team roster now and we hope, that in a little while, we will see other famous riders in our team”.
Muravyev’s only victory in recent years was in the team time trial at the 2009 Tour de France, riding alongside Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador.
The most successful Kazakstani cyclist, Alexander Vinokourov announced his retirement from cycling after crashing out of this year’s Tour de France. He is expected to take up a management role within Astana. The current management team is still looking for more riders to replace Vinokourov’s aggressive style of racing with more announcements expected soon.
It was reported yesterday that former top sprinter Djamolidine Abdoujaparov would join the team in an advisory role.