The 2009 season for the Astana cycling team began in January with the Tour Down Under and ended in October with the Giro di Lombardia.

With a strong identity as a stage racing team, Astana's leaders in 2009 were Alberto Contador, Levi Leipheimer, and Lance Armstrong, who returned to competitive cycling in 2009 after a four-year absence.

The return of Alexander Vinokourov from retirement and a ban for doping, which ended just as the 2009 Tour de France did, changed the team's makeup for 2010.

[4] Aside from their one podium finish, with Maxim Iglinsky in E3 Prijs Vlaanderen,[5] the seventh place attained by Daniel Navarro in the Gran Premio di Lugano[6] was the team's best result in a one-day race in the spring season.

Through Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne, Milan–San Remo (which saw the participation of Armstrong), the Tour of Flanders, Gent–Wevelgem, Paris–Roubaix, the Amstel Gold Race, La Flèche Wallonne, and Liège–Bastogne–Liège they did not have a rider finish higher than 16th (Assan Bazayev in Milan – San Remo)[7] Astana raced a light schedule in the fall, with the pinnacle of their season having come at the Tour de France.

[12][13] While the Tour of California was ongoing, the team sent another eight-man squad including Contador and Andreas Klöden to the Volta ao Algarve.

[15] At Paris–Nice in March, Contador appeared well in line to repeat his victory there from two years prior, winning the opening individual time trial [16] and the mountainous sixth stage.

[17] He dramatically faltered in Stage 7, however, losing the yellow jersey and three minutes to Luis León Sánchez, and ultimately finishing fourth.

[21] In April, Contador claimed a convincing victory in the Vuelta al País Vasco, taking the race lead by winning the mountainous Stage 3 and dominating the final time trial.

[24] With a squad made up of riders that normally ride in support for others, the team took a stage win (Klöden) and second overall (Janez Brajkovič) in the Giro del Trentino, also in April.

[27] In the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré in June, Contador was thought to be a favorite for victory,[28] but he did not seem to try his hardest to win, not attacking or taking any pulls on the mountainous Stage 5 and seeming to work for Alejandro Valverde on the race's last two days.

Chris Horner obtained the race lead after the individual time trial in stage 3B, which was won by Alexander Vinokourov riding for the Kazakh national team.

[32] Though Horner fell to second behind Tour de l'Ain champion Rein Taaramäe the next day as the race concluded, he did win the points classification.

Contador chose to skip the Giro, despite his status as reigning champion, in order to concentrate on the Tour de France.

[50] Speculation ensued that this move was meant to firmly install Armstrong as the team's leader, and Contador was visibly stunned by the stage result when interviewed afterward.

[51] Astana won the Stage 4 team time trial the next day, putting Armstrong a mere 22/100ths of a second off the race lead and Contador, Klöden, and Leipheimer behind him third through fifth, with Zubeldia also in the top ten at seventh.

Coming to the finish line, a group of overall contenders was in ninth position on the road, as remnants of the morning's breakaway were scattered ahead of them.

With about three kilometers gone by in an 8.8 km final climb to Verbier, Contador attacked and got free of the leading group, that included Klöden and Armstrong, soloing to the line for the stage win and the yellow jersey.

[71] The new jersey was revealed on May 15, the date of Stage 7 when the Giro returned to Italy from Austria, as having the names of the underpaying sponsors faded out to the point of being unreadable.

It was announced on June 19 that the situation had been resolved, with the Kazakh Cycling Federation agreeing to pay what the sponsors were indebted to the team.

Garmin team manager Jonathan Vaughters refused to address the rumors, saying that all negotiations are confidential until finalized,[75] but Contador himself commented in September that he had been close to switching before the 2009 Tour began.

[78] After confirming in October 2008 his intention to return to competitive cycling,[79] Vinokourov stated on the eve of the 2009 Tour de France that he would rejoin Astana, the team he believes was created expressly for him, at the expiration of his two-year ban on July 24.

It would contain almost exclusively Kazakhstani and Spanish riders, in the image of the former Liberty Seguros team, for which Contador previously rode.

[82] On 21 July, with Contador, Armstrong and Klöden holding three of the top four places in the Tour de France, Bruyneel told Belgian channel VRT that Astana as currently constituted was "finished" and that he would be leaving the team, as Vinokourov and the Kazakh federation had discussed, after the season.

[94] With Dimitry Muravyev's transfer, Astana's entire 2009 Tour de France squad, Contador aside, had moved to Armstrong's new team.