Tour de France - Astana aim or stage wins but lack two of their central figures

XDS Astana Team have selected their team for the Tour de France. After a successful Giro d'Italia in which the Kazakh team won three stages with three different riders, they now aim for similar at the Tour de France. A stage win would already come as a success likely, taking into consideration the different level in competition and also the notable absences in the lineup.

The team is starting the Tour with two main groups consisting of four riders. One is set to be aiming for breakaways exclusively featuring Sergio Higuita, Simone Velasco and Nicolas Vinokourov who should be aiming more towards the hilly days.

Harold Tejada is also present and is an option also for the mountainous days, although the Colombian rider may also attempt to go for the overall classification after he has shown on several instances to be a quality stage-racer.

Then there is a second block to the team featuring Max Kanter as the head sprinter; whilst Davide Ballerini may also be an option for sprints in a few hilly days but above all breakaways that are fit for the classics specialists. There will likely be a strong leadout for the German sprinter consisting of Ballerini but also former yellow jersey Mike Teunissen and Kiwi Aaron Gate.

The team has a few absences that come as very noteworthy. The first is Lorenzo Fortunato, who hoped to have been selected for the Giro d'Italia but was instead scheduled to race the Tour. The Grand Depart is days away and now there is the confirmation he will also not be present in Barcelona. The Italian did not finish the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and it may be the effect of an illness.

But Cristián Rodríguez is a very notable absence. The Spaniard was on tremendous form in Auvergne and rode to eighth in the overall classification, finishing fifth on the queen stage up to the Plateau de Solaison on the final day. The 31-year old is set to race at the Tour of Magnificent Qinghai instead in July and then set his sights on the Vuelta a España.