Sport in Kazakhstan 61st Vuelta a España by attacking Alejandro Valverde in dramatic fashion with 23 km to go in Stage 17. He then held on to his lead over the next four stages, including the final individual time trial to win the Vuelta. Vinokourov and Kashechkin would go on in 2007 to form a new team, backed by the same sponsors as their team from 2006, but with its own lineage. This team is also known as . Another famous professional cyclist, Andrey Kivilev, died after a crash in the 2003 edition of the Paris–Nice race. Football is the most popular sport
2009 Vuelta a España stages being mountain stages, with four mountaintop finishes. The race was won by Spain's Alejandro Valverde who claimed his first grand tour victory. 29 teams sought places in the race, of which 21 were initially invited to compete. , one of two UCI ProTour teams omitted from the list of invited teams, appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and were subsequently granted the right to enter. are thus the only ProTour team absent from the race. "For details see 2009 Vuelta a España, Stage 1 to Stage 11 and 2009 Vuelta a España, Stage 12 to Stage 21."