Astana have announced the signing of four riders for the 2015 season. Lars Boom will strengthen the team's classics roster while Luis Leon Sanchez, Davide Malacarne and Diego Rosa will provide firepower for the GC riders in the mountains.

Having finished on the podium in the first two grand tours, Astana have significantly bolstered their squad for the three-week races by the signing of three strong climbers. Davide Malarcarne, Luis Leon Sanchez and Diego Rosa will both ride for the Kazakh team in 2015. The former two have signed one-year contracts while the latter will stay with the team until the end of the 2016 seaon.

With the new contract, Sanchez will be back on the WorldTour after a one-year absence suring which he has been riding for Caja Rural. Malacarne has been riding for Europcar for a few years and got close to a stage win in the 2014 Giro. Rosa is one of the greatest Italian climbing talents and has excelled in his first two professional seasons with Androni.

“Malacarne and Rosa are strong Italian riders who can help Fabio Aru in stage races," manager Alexandre Vinokourov said.

In addition to the three climbers, the team have announced the signing of classics specialist Lars Boom who was strongly rumoured to be joining Sky. However, the Dutchman has decided to sign a two-year contract with Astana which will make him the undisputed leader in the cobbled classics.

“Boom is a classics rider as well as a Grand Tour teammate, and won stage five this year at the Tour de France in conditions not seen on the pave in more than a decade," Vinokourov said.

In August Astana Pro Team will take on three young stagiaires from Astana Continental Team to race through the end of the 2014 season:

Maksat Ayazbaev, Bakhtiyar Kozhataev and Ilya Davidenok.

Davidenok recently won the overall general classification at the Tour of Qinghai Lake in China, Kozhataev has shown consistent Top-5 finish capability in races for the past two seasons and Ayazbaev will start the upcoming Tour of Denmark in support of Jakob Fuglsang.