The exodus of riders and staff from Astana to the new RadioShack team continued today with Dmitriy Murayev, according to website astanafans.com. If true, he becomes the first Kazakh rider to make the leap from his “home” team to the new US outfit. Murayev was part of the winning Astana Tour de France team and apparently prefers to stay with third-placed seven-time winner Lance Armstrong and Director Sportif Johan Bruyneel.
So far, besides Armstrong and Bruyneel themselves, nine other Astana riders – Janez Brajkovic, Chris Horner, Andreas Klöden, Levi Leipheimer, Sergio Paulinho, Yaroslav Popovych, Grégory Rast, Jose Luis Rubiera and Tomas Vaitkus – have been confirmed to be moving to the new RadioShack team for 2010, with Haimar Zubeldia apparently also wanting to make the switch.
Murayev’s departure means that the entire Tour team is choosing to follow Armstrong rather than remain with race winner Alberto Contador – although the Spaniard is still to confirm that he will be staying at Astana.