Saul Raisin (US) and Dmitriy Muravyev (Kazakhstan) (Image credit: Mark Johnson)
The comings and goings at Astana continue with the news that Kazakh rider Dmitriy Muravyev has decided to leave the team from his home country and take up an offer to follow Johan Bruyneel, Lance Armstrong, and many others to Radio Shack.
The 30-year-old becomes the 11th rider to make the move from Astana to The Shack, with Spaniard Haimar Zubeldia still hoping to make it a round dozen by finding a way out of his contract with the Kazakh team.
Astana have been filling the gaps left in their roster, with the likes of David De La Fuente, Enrico Gasparotto and Paolo Tiralongo. Slovene rider Gorazd Stangelj has now confirmed he will also be joining them. Speaking to the Astana fans website, the 36-year-old Liquigas rider revealed:"I signed a one-year commitment the day before the Giro di Lombardia. What forced me to do so was the behaviour of my team that again waited till the last moment to give me an option to extend the contract.
"They offered me a contract, but only because they’d heard that I have a number of other offers. But I told them that this time I’m determined not to stay. Now everyone is offended, but that’s typical of this kind of deal. That’s how it is. I’m sorry that I have to leave, but I’m still happy that I have decided to join Astana."
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Peter Cossins has written about professional cycling since 1993 and is a contributing editor to Procycling. He is the author of The Monuments: The Grit and the Glory of Cycling's Greatest One-Day Races (Bloomsbury, March 2014) and has translated Christophe Bassons' autobiography, A Clean Break (Bloomsbury, July 2014).
