Bye bye Astana

tunney · 13-02-2008 2:52pm #1

http://www.velonews.com/article/72000

Banned from all ASO events including the Tour de France.

Team is as dirty as hell, as it was in its previous incarnation, good riddance.

Raam · 13-02-2008 4:12pm

I wonder how long before Contador and his friends jump ship.

tunney · 13-02-2008 5:00pm

Who would touch him, he is half the problem.

Chips Lovell · 13-02-2008 5:14pm

ASO and the other grand tour organisers have just spent the past year fighting with Pat McQuaid and the UCI to regain control over who they could invite. They've gotten their way now. Not a big surprise given the noises that Prudhomme was making recently.

E@gle. · 13-02-2008 9:33pm

Raam wrote: »

I wonder how long before Contador and his friends jump ship.

tour de france leader not being allowed to defend his yellow jersey.
i assumed that someone on the team would get done for doping after the tour, never predicted this.

Titiritero · 13-02-2008 10:27pm

tunney wrote: »

http://www.velonews.com/article/72000

Team is as dirty as hell, as it was in its previous incarnation, good riddance.

Quite unfair comment. The sponsor is the same, but team is completely new. And Contador, as far as I know, hasn't been caught doped. Therefore, assuming his innocence unless proven otherwise, he and the team should be allowed to race.

You could be suspicious, and rightly so, but the same applies to the other 18 teams and 200 cyclists that are being invited.

Raam · 14-02-2008 2:43pm

I wonder would Astana have been banned had the same management remained? Probably, one would assume.

Bruyneel, great director though he may be, hasn't always had the best judgment of the way things go: he signed Basso even though he (Basso) was under suspicion for doping. Bruyneel came under great criticism for that. Basso didn't last too long on the team, even if he did resign under his own steam.

Bye bye Astana

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