2008 Astana season

The 2008 season for the Astana cycling team began in January with the Tour Down Under and ended in October with the Giro di Lombardia. As a UCI ProTour team, they were automatically invited and obliged to attend every event in the UCI ProTour.

Astana changed drastically between the 2007 and 2008 seasons, with its former manager Marc Biver replaced by Johan Bruyneel from the dissolved Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team. Following Bruyneel to Astana were several riders from that team, including Alberto Contador and Levi Leipheimer, who had finished first and third, respectively, in the 2007 Tour de France for Discovery. Numerous riders also left the team, including Matthias Kessler, Andrey Kashechkin, and Alexander Vinokourov, who had all tested positive for doping.

The team's biggest successes in 2008 were the overall victories by Contador in the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España. As the team was barred from competing in the Tour de France that year, as well as other events organized by the Amaury Sport Organisation, Contador was unable to defend his championship from the year before.

Just as the team's competitive season was nearing its end, Lance Armstrong announced that he planned to return to competitive cycling in 2009 after a four-year absence. As Bruyneel was Armstrong's team manager for all seven of his Tour de France victories, there was much speculation immediately that Armstrong would sign with Astana in his comeback, which he eventually did.