On Wednesday, Astana Pro Team officially presented its 2014 squad. The squad was represented in a crowded hall of sponsors, guests, friends and family in Italy to introduce new faces and set out the season's goals.

At the end of the long team presentation, former Olympic gold winner and Astana General Manager Alexandr Vinokourov said that the main goal of the 2014 is to win the Tour de France.

"Last year we worked together to win the Giro d'Italia, and it wasn't easy. But the effort, motivation and drive that we demonstrated found its reward on the final podium right here in Brescia, and it's a great privilege to be able to stand here today and say we are ready to assume our next challenge at the 2014 Tour de France," Vinokurov said.

Astana Pro Team captain Italian Vincenzo Nibali wore the Maglia Rosa into Brescia, where the team presentation was, and took the Giro d’Italia trophy. He said the Tour de France presents a new set of objectives for the Kazakhstan-based squad.

"The Tour de France in July is of course our primary goal - we have developed a race program that will try to bring us to the top level for the start in Leeds, and in a few days we will start racing in Argentina and Australia in preparation of the season. But we also want to capitalize on our deeply talented riders and aim for results in Milano-Sanremo, in Liege-Bastogne-Liege, in Paris-Nice, Tirreno-Adriatico and the Giro d'Italia again. These are complicated tasks with a lot of moving parts, and it is a big job for the entire team," Nibali said.

The 2014 Astana squad: Alessandro Vanotti, Alexey Lutsenko, Alexandr Dyachenko, Andrea Guardini, Andrey Zeits, Andriy Grivko, Arman Kamyshev, Borut Bozic, Daniil Fominykh, Dmitriy Gruzdev, Dmitriy Muravyev, Enrico Gasparatto, Evan Huffman, Fabio Aru, Francesco Gavazzi, Fredrik Kessiakoff, Jacopo Guarnieri, Jakob Fuglsang, Janez Brajkovic, Lieuwe Westra, Maxim Iglinskiy, Michele Scarponi, Mikel Landa, Paolo Tiralongo, Ruslan Tleubayev, Tanel Kangert, Valentin Iglinskiy, Valerio Agnoli and Vincenzo Nibali.