Pro Team Astana / 2010 season
This article lists the successes and team of the Astana cycling team in the 2010 season.
2010 season
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In addition to the twelve departures to Armstrong's new Team RadioShack , the two Swiss Steve Morabito and Michael Schär also left the team for the BMC Racing Team after the end of the 2009 season . The total of 16 departures contrasted with 14 newcomers for the 2010 season. The Spaniards David de la Fuente and Joseph Jufré from Fuji-Servetto as well as the Tour de France winner from 2006 , Óscar Pereiro , who came from Caisse d'Epargne , were brought in primarily to help the Tour captain Contador. Of Lampre-NGC , the two were Italians Paolo Tiralongo , a strong climber, and Enrico Gasparotto , a sprinter and classics specialist, committed. With the Australian sprinter Allan Davis from Quick Step , another experienced and successful professional was drawn ashore, followed by his compatriot Scott Davis , formerly with Team T-Mobile , who had previously driven for Fly V Australia . In addition, the experienced Slovenian Gorazd Štangelj , the Italian talent Mirko Selvaggi and the Ukrainian tour specialist Andrij Hrywko joined the team for the new season . The team was completed by four Kazakh drivers : Maxim Gurow , the neo-professional Evgeni Nepomnjatschi as well as Dmitri Fofonow and Valentin Iglinski , both of whom were not active the year before. The team's captains for 2010 were Alberto Contador , who was aiming for his third Tour de France victory, and Alexander Vinokurow , who wanted to concentrate on the classics and the Giro d'Italia , and who wanted to help Contador on the tour.
Season course
Despite the numerous departures of stars and top performers, the 2010 racing season was very successful for the Astana team. In February Alberto Contador was able to set his first exclamation mark by winning the Algarve Tour , and at the beginning of March Maxim Iglinski triumphed in the one-day race Monte Paschi Eroica in Tuscany.
The first highlight of the season for the team, and especially for Alberto Contador, was the long-distance Paris-Nice trip . Contador was unable to win this in 2009 due to hunger . In 2010, however, he succeeded in winning the "Drive to the Sun" by winning the fourth stage, which ended with a mountain finish in Mende , taking away the overall leader's yellow jersey from the German Jens Voigt , which Contador was no longer to surrender . Enrico Gasparotto also managed to win the fifth section of the Tirreno – Adriatico long-distance journey, which was held almost at the same time . It was the Italian's first win for his new Astana team. At the end of March, Contador and his team met last year's team-mate Lance Armstrong for the first time at the Critérium International . Neither Contador nor the Tour record winner played a role in the overall standings in Corsica, however, because Armstrong was not yet in shape and the Spaniard was suffering from an infection.
After they had been cured, tour favorite Contador won his third stage race in 2010 in mid-April. He secured victory at the Vuelta a Castilla y León with a success in the time trial. Astana co-captain Alexander Vinokurow was also successful in April . The Kazakh won the Giro del Trentino thanks to his prologue victory . Two days after its end, Vinokurov was also the first to cross the finish line at Liège-Bastogne-Liège . "Wino" was whistled by the spectators at the finish line because of his doping history.
Vinokurov also went into the Giro d'Italia , which he wanted to win for the first time, as captain in the race. There he actually won the overall leader's pink jersey on the third day, but lost it to Vincenzo Nibali on the fourth stage in the team time trial . On the seventh part of the day, however, the former Team Telekom driver slipped into the "Maglia Rosa" again. But on the eleventh stage, the favorites let a breakaway group run away by a large margin, from which Richie Porte took the lead. In the mountains Vinokurow could not keep up with the eventual winner Ivan Basso due to the weakness of his team and finished the Giro in sixth, over seven minutes behind Basso.
In preparation for the tour, Contador competed in the Critérium du Dauphiné 2010 in June , where he won the prologue. On the fourth stage, a longer time trial, the Spaniard surprisingly lost the overall leader's yellow jersey to the Slovenian Janez Brajkovič from Team RadioShack . Although he wanted to get the jersey back on the sixth section to L'Alpe d'Huez , despite numerous attacks and his victory of the day, he was unable to shake off Brajkovič. The day before, his compatriot and nobleman Daniel Navarro celebrated his first professional victory as a soloist on another mountain stage. In the Kazakh championship, which took place a week before the start of the Tour de France, the Astana riders dominated the race and also provided the winner with Maxim Gurow . For Gurow it was the greatest success of his professional career so far. On the same day, his Slovenian team-mate Gorazd Štangelj also won the national championship title of his home country.
The 2010 Astana team for the Tour of France was geared towards Alberto Contador . In the previous year, Contador still had a competitor for overall victory in their own team, Lance Armstrong . Contador's compatriots David de la Fuente , Jesús Hernández , Daniel Navarro and Benjamín Noval , the experienced Italian Paolo Tiralongo , the Ukrainian Andrij Hrywko as well as the Kazakhs Maxim Iglinski and above all Alexander Vinokurow were supposed to support the Spaniard, especially in the mountains.
But at the prologue in Rotterdam there was a small disappointment for the defending champion: Contador finished sixth and lost five seconds to co-favorite Lance Armstrong. Numerous riders fell on the second stage, including Armstrong, Contador and Andy and his brother Fränk Schleck . While the American and the Astana man were able to catch up with the field again, the two Luxembourgers threatened to fall behind. But her team Saxo Bank colleague Fabian Cancellara, winner of the prologue, prevented the field from picking up the pace, so that the two co-favorites could catch up again. The third stage, which partly led over cobblestones, was a decisive part of the overall standings. Many drivers wanted to take advantage of the opportunity in advance and take time away from Contador, as the defending champion was not considered very experienced on the cobblestones. But he had trained with the former specialist Peter van Petegem before the tour . For this reason, and because of Vinokurov's help, Contador lost little time on fellow favorites like Andy Schleck , Cadel Evans , Bradley Wiggins and Denis Menchov . The Spaniard was only a few seconds behind the last two because Vinokourov had picked up the pace in the group on the home straight, so that Contador missed the connection. The tour favorite still made up a minute on the fallen Armstrong and more than a minute on Giro d'Italia winner Ivan Basso and was ninth overall. The first mountain arrival of the Tour de France 2010 took place on the seventh stage, which led up to the station des Rousses. Contador and Vinokurow reached the goal in the large group of favorites. The Kazakh moved up to fifth in the overall standings, ahead of his team-mate and captain Contador.
On the next leg of the day to Morzine-Avoriaz, on which Armstrong lost his chances of winning with almost twelve minutes behind, the Spaniard also reached the goal with the other favorites, but Andy Schleck, whose brother Fränk had already been eliminated, and Samuel were able to win Just before the finish, Sanchez had a ten second lead. Meanwhile, "Wino" crossed the finish line almost two and a half minutes behind Schleck and fell back to 15th place overall. On the last alpine stage, Schleck and Contador set themselves apart from the other favorites on the last climb, the Col de la Madeleine , and made it clear that there would be a duel between the two in the fight for victory. Schleck took over the yellow jersey from Cadel Evans with 41 seconds ahead of the Spaniard . The twelfth stage led the field to Mende , where Contador had already won Paris-Nice in the spring. On the climb there, Vinokurow attacked and was on his way to victory of the day, until he overtook and overtook Contador and Joaquim Rodríguez and finally finished third of the day behind the Spaniard, who was able to work out ten seconds ahead of Schleck. Vinokourov made up for the missed success a day later. On the actually flat stage to Revel , the Kazakh attacked the last hill before the finish and increased his lead on the descent. The following solo win was the only Tour stage win for the Astana team in 2010.
The day after, the route led to the Pyrenees on the Ax-3-Domaines. On the final climb, Contador and Schleck watched each other until the third and fourth places in the overall standings, Samuel Sanchez and Denis Menchov , pulled away and reached the finish with a small margin. "Wino" took 13th place just under a minute behind his captain. The Tour de France 2010 was decided on the 16th stage from Pamiers to Bagnères-de-Luchon through the Pyrenees. On the last mountain of the day, the Port de Balès , where Daniel Navarro in particular had already set the pace for his captain Contador, Andy Schleck launched an attack that initially only Alexander Vinokurow could follow. But the Luxembourger's chain jumped off his bike, Contador passed by, reached the finish line after a descent with a forty-second lead over Schleck and slipped into the Tour's yellow jersey for the first time in 2010. Because of his start when Schleck had a defect, Contador was criticized by some drivers and experts for allegedly disregarding the rules of fair play.
The following day in the Pyrenees was uneventful for Contador and Vinokurow, as both crossed the finish line with the other favorites. After a day of rest, the royal stage of the 2010 tour led to the Col du Tourmalet, where Schleck tried to shake off the Spaniard with numerous attacks, but he did not succeed. The two of them reached the goal in pairs and the man in the yellow jersey let Schleck win the day. Meanwhile, Vinokourov experienced a break-in and lost over ten minutes. The final decision should be made on the penultimate day in the individual time trial from Bordeaux to Pauillac . The Spaniard was only eight seconds behind Schleck before the race, but was considered the better time trial. But Schleck was at times even a few seconds faster than Contador on the wind-prone course, until it caught up to the finish line by half a minute. After the last stage, Alberto Contador was celebrated as the winner of the Tour de France for the third time on the Parisian Champs-Elysées . It was his closest success with just 39 seconds ahead of Schleck. Although Contador had not won a segment of the day and had benefited from Schleck's technical defect, together with the stage win and the sixteenth overall place for Alexander Vinokurow , the Astana team had achieved its goals. In addition, all nine Astana drivers reached Paris .
But already during the Tour of France it became known that Contador would not renew his contract, which expired at the end of the 2010 season, and would switch to the Danish racing team Saxo Bank Sungard .
After the tour it became known that a doping test by Alberto Contador during the Tour de France was positive. Contador was temporarily suspended, this suspension was later lifted and as a result of a long trial, Contador was finally found guilty of doping by the International Court of Justice for Sports (CAS) in February 2012 . The tour victory in 2010 was dismissed and Andy Schleck was awarded. Likewise, all Contador results after the Tour de France 2010 until August 2012 were canceled.
In October Astana driver Allan Davis , who had previously contested the Vuelta a España , won bronze for Australia at the World Championships in Geelong. The last win of the season for the team was won by Valentin Iglinski . The Kazakh sprinter won a stage and the overall ranking of the Tour of Hainan in China. In the final classification of the UCI World Calendar , Alexander Vinokourov was the best-placed Astana rider in 11th place, while the Kazakh team finished eighth in the team classification.
Achievements in the UCI World Calendar
| date | run | Cat | driver |
|---|---|---|---|
| March 11 |
 4th stage Paris – Nice
|
HIS |
 Alberto Contador
|
| March 7-14 |
Overall ranking Paris – Nice
|
HIS |
Alberto Contador
|
| the 14th of March |
 5th stage Tirreno – Adriatico
|
HIS |
Enrico Gasparotto
|
| April 25 |
 Liège-Bastogne-Liège
|
HIS |
 Alexander Vinokurov
|
| 6th of June |
Prologue Critérium du Dauphiné
|
PT |
Alberto Contador
|
| June 11th |
5th stage Critérium du Dauphiné
|
PT |
Daniel Navarro
|
| June 12 |
6th stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné
|
PT |
Alberto Contador
|
| 17th July |
13th stage Tour de France
|
HIS |
Alexander Vinokurov
|
Successes in the Continental Tour
| date | run | driver |
|---|---|---|
| 19th of February |
 3rd stage Volta ao Algarve
|
Alberto Contador
|
| 17.-21. February |
Overall rating Volta ao Algarve
|
Alberto Contador
|
| 6th March |
Strade Bianchi
|
Maxim Iglinski
|
| 17th April |
4th stage Vuelta a Castilla y León (EZF) |
Alberto Contador
|
| 14.-18. April |
Overall ranking Vuelta a Castilla y León
|
Alberto Contador
|
| 20th of April |
1st stage Giro del Trentino (EZF) |
Alexander Vinokurov
|
| 20.-23. April |
Overall ranking Giro del Trentino
|
Alexander Vinokurov
|
| June 27th |
Kazakh championship - road racing |
Maxim Gurow
|
| June 27th |
 Slovenian Championship - Road Race |
Gorazd Štangelj
|
| October 12th |
 2nd stage Tour of Hainan
|
Valentin Iglinski
|
| 11-19 October |
Overall Tour of Hainan
|
Valentin Iglinski
|
Additions - disposals 2010
team
shirt
2010
