Seven-times Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong heads the Astana team’s challenge for the 2009 event after they confirmed their 13-man pre-selection line-up today.
The list of competitors will be whittled down to nine before the contest begins in Monaco on July 4, but Armstrong is one of six riders certain to be involved for Astana barring injury.
He will be joined by 2007 Tour champion Alberto Contador plus Andreas Kloden, Levi Leipheimer, Yaroslav Popovych and Haimar Zubeldia.
Three of the seven other riders named in the preliminary squad will also make the final cut.