Team Astana has come a long way in a short time since the Tour de France shame of Alexandre Vinokourov.

It's come such a long way that it would be nice if its website caught up with it.

The latest news: Tour de France champion Alberto Contador has signed a two-year contract to ride with Astana and rejoin the team's new general manager, Johan Bruyneel, and sporting director Sean Yates.

"After considering the different offers that I have had, I have opted for Astana because it is a completely new project," Contador said.

New for Astana, but the team looks like the disbanded Discovery Channel team. Contador follows former Discovery teammate Levi Leipheimer (will Levi EVER get to be a team leader?) to the Kazakh-sponsored but Swiss-based, formerly scandal-ridden team.

"The project of new Astana is magnificent and I am very happy of being able to have Alberto Contador to lead this team, because he is the rider of the future," Bruyneel said (sounding like a bad Kazakh translation).

Contador said Astana's new team (how many times can an old team say new, new, new?) would include Alain Gallopin of France and -- are you sitting? -- former Russian cyclist Viatcheslav Ekimov. Andreas Kloeden remains.

"Of course Astana has had some bad press," said Yates. "But Johan Bruyneel has never had a positive test with a team he has been involved with. And I am confident that we will not have any problems in the future."

Now, who hasn't had a positive test? Bruyneel? Or the team's riders?

Former Astana leader Vinokourov was dismissed by the team after he tested positive for blood doping in this year's Tour de France, as you no doubt remember.

And two other riders from the team, Andrej Kashechkin and Matthias Kessler, have also failed doping tests this year.