de Galdeano. Saiz signed Heras; he did not perform well at the 2004 Tour de France but won the 2004 Vuelta after a battle with Santiago Pérez. Liberty Seguros In the 2005 the team started with wins in the Tour Down Under through Alberto Contador and Luis León Sánchez. In the 2005 Tour the team won the stage to Mende courtesy of Marcos Antonio Serrano, reminiscent of Laurent Jalabert's win in 1995. Alexander Vinokourov joined in 2006 for three seasons to challenge for top finish in the Tour de France. Fellow Kazakhstan riders Andrei Kashechkin, formerly of Crédit Agricole, and Sergei Yakovlev also joined. On 25 November, Roberto Heras was fired after a urine sample from the 2005 Vuelta a España, which he had won, tested positive for the blood-boosting drug EPO. Heras was stripped of what would have been a record-breaking fourth win and banned for two years. Sponsorship Changes and 2006 Season On 23 May 2006, Saiz was arrested in relation to the Operación Puerto blood doping scandal. Liberty Mutual retracted sponsorship on 25 May 2006, promising only to finance current obligations. On 2 June 2006, the team acquired a new primary sponsor – named Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan – for three years, with an option to extend to six. It was headed by a consortium of five Kazakh companies. Long before Saiz was ensnared in Operación Puerto, the team had been notorious for doping dating back to its days as ONCE, and was considered one of the dirtiest teams in the European peloton. On June 30, 2006, Astana-Würth was excluded from the 2006 Tour de France after five riders were implicated in a doping scandal, leaving Vinokourov with three remaining teammates, below the minimum six for the Tour. Würth stopped its commitment on 3 of July. On 26 July 2006, the five riders excluded from the Tour were cleared by Spanish officials, and the team returned to competition at the Tour of Germany in August, Assan Bazayev winning the first stage. One rider, Joseba Beloki, would never ride a professional race again. At the end of 2006, Saiz listed Astana as his team's backer. Astana also claimed to have withdrawn support due to non-participation in the Tour. On 16 December 2006, the UCI withdrew the ProTour license of Saiz's Active Bay company. Victories in the later years of the team's existence 2002 results 2003 results 2004