Dmitriy Fofonov will be the new strong man at Astana where he will replace Giuseppe Martinelli. General manager Alexandre Vinokourov made the announcement at the team presentation in Kazakhstan.

Vinokourov made it official that Fofonov "will take the place" of Martinelli who will continue in the team as the new manager and deputy manager of logistics. "He did a good job and we are very grateful," he said in an interview with Sports.kz.

Fofonov (1976) takes the role as sports manager of Astana in 2016 after "a great job this year," and he will be the right hand in the meetings that Vinokourov cannot attend. Fofonov was professional between 1998 and 2012 in the Collstrop, Cofidis and Credit Agricole teams and rode his last three years with Astana.

Astana presented its new team in Kazakhstan, with Nibali and Aru as the big leaders and with a focus on the grand tours. Nibali won the Giro d'Italia in 2013 and the Tour de France in 2014 and Aru completed the list by winning this year's Vuelta a Espana. For next year, the Sardinian will debut in the Tour while Nibali will have the Giro as his first major objective.

Vinokourov said that the team has three main goals in 2016: the Giro d'Italia, "with Nibali as leader", the Tour de France, "where we put our hopes on Fabio Aru", and "of course" the Olympics. The decision regarding Nibali's participation in the Tour will be taken "at the end of the Giro."

At the event at the Velodrome in Saryarka, four other teams were presented to the public: Astana Women Team; Track Team Astana; and two continental teams, Vino4ever and Astana City.

2016 roster:

Returning riders: Valerio Agnoli, Fabio Aru, Maxat Ayazbayev, Lars Boom, Dario Cataldo, Laurens De Vreese, Daniil Fominykh, Andrei Grivko, Dmitriy Gruzdev, Andrea Guardini, Arman Kamysehv, Tanel Kangert, Bakhtiyar Kozhatayev, Miguel Angel Lopez, Alexey Lutsenko, Davide Malacarne, Vincenzo Nibali, Diego Rosa, Luis Leon Sanchez, Michele Scarponi, Gatis Smukulis, Paolo Tiralongo, Ruslan Tleubayev, Alessandro Vanotti, Lieuwe Westra, Andrey Zeits. 

New signings: Eros Capecchi (Movistar Team), Gatis Smukulis (Katusha), Matvey Nikitin (Seven Riders Cycling Team) and Oleg Zemlyakov (Vino4Ever) (the latter two haven't been confirmed yet.