The 2009 season for the cycling team began in January with the Tour Down Under and ended in October with the Giro di Lombardia. As a UCI ProTour team, they were automatically invited to and obliged to attend every UCI ProTour event, and were invited to every event in the inaugural UCI World Calendar as well.
With a strong identity as a stage racing team, Astana's leaders in 2009 were Alberto Contador, Levi Leipheimer, and Lance Armstrong, who returned to competitive cycling in 2009 after a four-year absence. The team's manager up through the Tour de France was Johan Bruyneel.
The team's biggest success in 2009 was Contador's overall victory in the Tour de France. Elsewhere, their main successes in 2009 were in small stage races, with Contador winning the Volta ao Algarve and the Vuelta al País Vasco as well as two stages in Paris–Nice, and Leipheimer winning the Tour of California and the Vuelta a Castilla y León. The team also won the team classification at numerous events. The team failed to live up to lofty expectations in the Giro d'Italia; Leipheimer was widely considered a favorite for victory, as was Armstrong before a collarbone injury sustained weeks before, but Leipheimer finished sixth overall and the team did not win any stage.
Away from competition, the team's season was marked by financial troubles with their sponsors in the Kazakhstani government, which threatened the team's makeup and very existence for a time. The return of Alexander Vinokourov from retirement and a ban for doping, which ended just as the 2009 Tour de France did, changed the team's makeup for 2010.
2009 team roster Ages as of January 1, 2009
Riders who joined the team for the 2009 season Rider2008 teamLance Armstrongex-pro (, 2005)Valeriy DmitriyevUlanAlexsandr DyachenkoUlanJesús HernándezRelax–GAMYaroslav PopovychBolat RaimbekovUlanSergey RenevUlanHaimar Zubeldia
Riders who left the team during or after the 2008 season Rider2009 teamAntonio ColomKoen de KortThomas FreiVladimir GusevNo contract (signed with in 2010)René HaselbacherSergeui IvanovBenoît JoachimContinental Team DifferdangeAaron KempsJulien MazetAuber 93
One-day races
Spring classics By their own admission, Astana did not aim for the classics. Astana's first one-day race of the season was Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. Their best-placed rider was Michael Schär in 35th. Aside from their one podium finish, with Maxim Iglinsky in E3 Prijs Vlaanderen, the seventh place attained by Daniel Navarro in the Gran Premio di Lugano was the team's best result in a one-day race in the spring season. Through Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne, Milan–San Remo (which saw the participation of Armstrong), the Tour of Flanders, Gent–Wevelgem, Paris–Roubaix, the Amstel Gold Race, La Flèche Wallonne, and Liège–Bastogne–Liège they did not have a rider finish higher than 16th (Assan Bazayev in Milan – San Remo)
Fall races
Astana raced a light schedule in the fall, with the pinnacle of their season having come at the Tour de France. The team sent squads to the Clásica de San Sebastián, Vattenfall Cyclassics, the GP Ouest-France, the Giro dell'Emilia, the GP Beghelli, the Giro del Piemonte, and the Giro di Lombardia. Their best results from this crop of races came from Alexander Vinokourov, who finished seventh in Lombardy and fifth in the Giro dell'Emilia.
Stage races
The first event in which the team participated in 2009 was the Tour Down Under. As it was Armstrong's first event back after four years of retirement, he made many headlines and was even specially promoted on the event's webpage, though neither he nor the team were especially competitive in the event. Armstrong finished 29th overall, with the same time as Jesús Hernández in 28th as the best-placed Astana riders. The team did not finish in the top ten in any stage. In February, the team competed in the Tour of California, where Leipheimer won the individual time trial in Solvang and the Tour itself for the third straight year. The team also won the teams classification. While the Tour of California was ongoing, the team sent another eight-man squad including Contador and Andreas Klöden to the Volta ao Algarve. Contador and Klöden were first and third, respectively, in the time trial in Stage 4, giving Contador the overall lead which he retained through the conclusion of the race the next day.
At Paris–Nice in March, Contador appeared well in line to repeat his victory there from two years prior, winning the opening individual time trial and the mountainous sixth stage. He dramatically faltered in Stage 7, however, losing the yellow jersey and three minutes to Luis León Sánchez, and ultimately finishing fourth. He was unable to chase down Sánchez because of what was later blamed on dietary problems. The team experienced both success and hardship in the Vuelta a Castilla y León later in the month. Leipheimer won the event overall, with Contador having ridden the event in support for him. The first day, however, Armstrong was involved in a crash and taken to the hospital with was later revealed as a fractured clavicle. The injury was thought to take away from Armstrong's previously high odds to win the Giro d'Italia, and there was briefly speculation that he would even pull out of the Giro because of the injury.
In April, Contador claimed a convincing victory in the Vuelta al País Vasco, taking the race lead by winning the mountainous Stage 3 and dominating the final time trial. Though they did not race as Astana due to UCI rules, Armstrong, Leipheimer, and Chris Horner took part in the Tour of the Gila at the end of April and early May in what was Armstrong's first race back from the collarbone injury, with Leipheimer and Armstrong finishing in the top two places. With a squad made up of riders that normally ride in support for others, the team took a stage win (Klöden) and second overall (Janez Brajkovič) in the Giro del Trentino, also in April.
Astana participated in the Volta a Catalunya in May, while the Giro d'Italia was ongoing. The team did not win any stage, but Haimar Zubeldia took third overall in the event, and the team won the teams classification. In the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré in June, Contador was thought to be a favorite for victory, but he did not seem to try his hardest to win, not attacking or taking any pulls on the mountainous Stage 5 and seeming to work for Alejandro Valverde on the race's last two days. The team next took part in the Tour de Suisse, with Klöden in fourth their highest-placed rider.
Astana sent squads to the Brixia Tour, the Tour de Pologne, the Tour of Ireland, the Eneco Tour, the Tour of Missouri, and Franco–Belge, but did not obtain a stage win, podium finish, or classification victory in any of them. The squad sent to the Tour de l'Ain was more successful. Chris Horner obtained the race lead after the individual time trial in stage 3B, which was won by Alexander Vinokourov riding for the Kazakh national team. Though Horner fell to second behind Tour de l'Ain champion Rein Taaramäe the next day as the race concluded, he did win the points classification.
Grand Tours
Giro d'Italia Astana was one of 22 teams which participated in the Giro d'Italia. Contador chose to skip the Giro, despite his status as reigning champion, in order to concentrate on the Tour de France. The squad Astana sent to the Giro included Armstrong, in his first Grand Tour since the 2005 Tour de France and first ever Giro, and Leipheimer, who was considered to be a favorite to win the event. Support riders on the squad included Yaroslav Popovych, Chris Horner, and Janez Brajkovič.
The team started well, coming in third place in the team time trial in Stage 1, putting Leipheimer and Armstrong 13 seconds off the race lead. In the first mountain stage three days later, Leipheimer finished with Popovych and Horner with the same time as stage winner Danilo Di Luca, while Armstrong lost 15 seconds. The next day, Armstrong lost nearly three minutes and effectively lost any chance in the General Classification, while Leipheimer remained within ten seconds of stage winner Denis Menchov. Leipheimer was fourth overall after that stage and remained there until Stage 12, the very long and irregular individual time trial in Cinque Terre, where he was the only rider within a minute of the winning time put up by Menchov and moved to third overall. Horner withdrew from the race after Stage 10, after sustaining a leg injury that for a time prevented him from even being able to stand.
Leipheimer would fall from a podium position days later, though. After stages won by sprinters and breakaways, Stage 16, with a summit finish at Monte Petrano, was the next real test for riders aiming for the General Classification. Leipheimer was dropped by other leading riders on the climb and wound up losing almost three minutes on the stage, to fall to sixth overall. With their GC hopes all but dashed, Astana decided to try for stage wins on the remaining mountain days in the Giro. Armstrong attacked on Stage 17 and got clear of the leading group, but was unable to bridge to the man in first position on the road, Franco Pellizotti, who went on to win the stage. Ultimately, Astana did not win any stage at the Giro, but they did win the Trofeo Fast Team, beating by over 24 minutes.
Tour de France
The team was one of 20 to receive an invitation to the Tour de France. Contador, Leipheimer, and Armstrong were all named to the team. There was much speculation and controversy, which began when Armstrong first signed with the team, over who would be the team's protected rider in the Tour. Though Armstrong's express goal in returning from retirement was to win an eighth Tour de France, Contador had won his last three Grand Tours and insisted that he deserved leadership of the team and hinted that he might leave if forced to support Armstrong. Bruyneel assured Contador that he would be the leader before the season began. Contador was also publicly named team leader shortly before the Tour began.
The team showed well in the Stage 1 individual time trial, with Contador, Klöden, Leipheimer, and Armstrong all finishing in the top ten, and Contador just 19 seconds off the time put up by stage winner Fabian Cancellara. Two days later, a surprising move made by resulted in the field being split, as eight members of that team pushed a 28-man breakaway toward the finish line ahead of the main peloton. Armstrong, Popovych, and Zubeldia were in the first group, as Popovych and Zubeldia had helped to drive the break, while Leipheimer, Contador, and the other members of the team were in the second group 41 seconds back. This resulted in Armstrong rising to third overall and displacing Contador as the team's best-placed rider. Speculation ensued that this move was meant to firmly install Armstrong as the team's leader, and Contador was visibly stunned by the stage result when interviewed afterward.