The 2016 Santos Tour Down Under (18th edition) started on Saturday, January 16, with the traditional presentation of the teams at Victoria Square in Adelaide and will conclude  on Sunday, January 24.

It will be the first 2016 UCI World Tour race for Astana Pro Team.

Santos Tour Down Under is one of the major cycling events in the Southern hemisphere: in the heat of the Australian summer the riders will test the condition thanks to a mini stage race that will span 781.3 kilometers spread over six stages (plus an opening criterium of 51km), with the addition of 72.7 km of new roads.

The Astana Pro Team will line up the following athletes: Luis León Sánchez, Lars Boom, Dmitriy Gruzdev, Laurens De Vreese, Arman Kamyshev, Davide Malacarne and Lieuwe Westra.

Spanish European Champion (title conquered last year in Baku) Luis León Sánchez,who won the Santos Tour Down Under in 2005, will be the leader of the Kazakh Team:

"It is always a great pleasure to participate in this important race. The scenery is amazing and the level of competition is extremely high. We came to Australia a few days ago and now we are ready to compete to do very good things."