The 2008 season for the 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.
2008 team roster
Ages as of January 1, 2008
Riders who joined the team for the 2008 season
Riders who left the team during or after the 2007 season
One-day races
Spring classics
By their own admission, Astana does not aim for the classics. The team first participated in Omloop Het Volk on March 1, with Dmitriy Muravyev in 31st their best-placed rider. Sergei Ivanov's 7th in the Amstel Gold Race proved to be one of the team's best results all season, as in the other spring races in which they competed, Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne, the Tour of Flanders, and Gent–Wevelgem, they did not have a rider place higher than 13th. Due in part to the ban imposed by the Amaury Sport Organisation from participating in races they organized, the team did not compete in Milan–San Remo, Paris–Roubaix, La Flèche Wallonne, Liège–Bastogne–Liège, or other races in which a team of their caliber would normally take part. In March, Tomas Vaitkus earned the team's lone one-day victory of the spring season, winning a sprint finish to the Ronde van het Groene Hart.
Fall races
The team entered the Clásica de San Sebastián in August, with Contador in 26th their highest-placed finisher. Contador, like many riders in the event, rode it as preparation for the road cycling events at the 2008 Olympic Games. Astana also took part in Vattenfall Cyclassics, the Coppa Sabatini, Paris–Bourges, the Giro dell'Emilia, the Gran Premio Bruno Beghelli, Milano–Torino, and the Giro del Piemonte in September and October, but did not obtain a place higher than 11th (by Janez Brajkovič in the Giro dell'Emilia). In August, Leipheimer and Contador took the top two spots in the Clásica a los Puertos de Guadarrama, a race they rode as preparation for the Vuelta a España.
In the Giro di Lombardia, Astana's final race of the season, they were more successful than they had been most of the season, attaining a fourth podium finish in a one-day race on the year. While Damiano Cunego had broken away from the field with 15 kilometers left to race to win the event, Brajkovič won a sprint over 's Rigoberto Urán for second, and reacted as though he won the race. Chris Horner was also highly placed in the event, finishing seventh.