BREAKING NEWS: ASTANA & HIGH ROAD BANNED FROM GIRO !!!!

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I don't think he really cares except for the bad PR it gives him. But he'll come out and say that the French um Italians are just jealous and use the xenophobic excuse.... again.

I am very surprised tho to see High Road and A&S are not invited. Not really anti-doping - how the hell can they invite DiLuca and not High Road?

I had the exact same thought about DiLuca. But I guess disinviting the defending winner would be a little too extreme for them. When are the Tour de France selections announced?

If Astana's funding is a little shaky then this definitely won't help.

Poor Klodi. He cannot get a break.

how the hell can they invite DiLuca and not High Road?
Exactly what I was wondering....

Exactly what I was wondering....
Maybe this leaves the door open for the Tour to invite parts of Astana.

Can you imagine the impact to the TV ratings in Spain is Cantador doesn't race the Tour.

Contadope is for an automatical invitation of the last TDF winner !Not according to Prudhomme.. he says the tour invites teams, not rider and that ASO has still has the right to invite who ever they decide...

"I was not informed of the details," said Tour Director Christian Prudhomme to L'Equipe. "What I can repeat is that the essential point for us [ASO - ed.] is the benefit of total liberty in team selection. We no longer want to be a prisoner of events like in 2007 [referring to the Michael Rasmussen case in particular - ed.]."

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2008/jan08/jan30news2

OR today...

Reigning Tour de France champion Alberto Contador, who has signed for the disgraced Astana team, will not be a guaranteed a starting place in the 2008 race. Patrice Clerc, the president of Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) which oversees the epic competition, said that selection for the Tour de France was based on teams rather than an individual pedigree.

"When we make our selection, we don't pick individual riders but rather the teams," said Clerc.

"Let us have the time to calmly make our decision."



http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/080201/sports/cycling_fra_tour_contador

Well, also remember the Italian investigation on Puerto. So something tells me RCS and ASO have discussed this, and chances are ASO will not invite Giro 'banned' teams... if for no other reason than face them being arrested/hauled by carabinieri in for questioning during the TdF stages that come over the border.

The plot thickens...

Maybe this leaves the door open for the Tour to invite parts of Astana.

Can you imagine the impact to the TV ratings in Spain is Cantador doesn't race the Tour.But I thought ASO recently said that rather than not inviting individuals, they would rather just not invite entire teams. So, if they don't want Contador, they are much more likely to not invite Astana.

If Astana's funding is a little shaky then this definitely won't help.

Poor Klodi. He cannot get a break.Did Kloeden try to get a contract with another team? I'm wondering why he is sticking with Astana, knowing that he is screwed one way or the other (especially with Bruyneel and co. distancing away from him).

Well, also remember the Italian investigation on Puerto. So something tells me RCS and ASO have discussed this, and chances are ASO will not invite Giro 'banned' teams... if for no other reason than face them being arrested/hauled by carabinieri in for questioning during the TdF stages that come over the border.

The plot thickens...this is what it's about... Tori brought Basso to his knees and he's hell bent on bringing Contador and Valverde and as many Spaniards that basically got a get outa jail card for Puerto to suffer as well.. and i agree with him... fair is fair and since the tour is going through Italy this year.. he's got them by the short and curlies... spread the love...

DiLuca gets a pass because a) he's italian and it's the giro, b) he doesn't have any forseeable dope probes in the forseeable future, c) he's already been punished and did his time... and he actually wasn't caught or punished for doping or even attemped doping... just using the wrong doctor so he's tinged with doping but he's not as badly as others

Not according to Prudhomme.. he says the tour invites teams, not rider and that ASO has still has the right to invite who ever they decide...

"I was not informed of the details," said Tour Director Christian Prudhomme to L'Equipe. "What I can repeat is that the essential point for us [ASO - ed.] is the benefit of total liberty in team selection. We no longer want to be a prisoner of events like in 2007 [referring to the Michael Rasmussen case in particular - ed.]."

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2008/jan08/jan30news2

OR today...

Reigning Tour de France champion Alberto Contador, who has signed for the disgraced Astana team, will not be a guaranteed a starting place in the 2008 race. Patrice Clerc, the president of Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) which oversees the epic competition, said that selection for the Tour de France was based on teams rather than an individual pedigree.

"When we make our selection, we don't pick individual riders but rather the teams," said Clerc.

"Let us have the time to calmly make our decision."



http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/080201/sports/cycling_fra_tour_contador I missed this. It seems then the writing is on the wall.

It seems political to me re. CONI. Since when have the Italians been against doping?

But the way this damages cycling IMO is it makes the sponsorship gamble even worse. It further increases the risk of teams being excluded for things out of their control. Okay... so maybe Astana and High Road are villains and they have doping clouds over some of their riders... but what is the policy here? Where is the line in the sand? How does a sponsor know what is going to happen to their team (re. invites to major races) if a couple of their riders get exposed Puerto style... for indiscretions they were unaware of when they hired them? It seems a continuation of warring factions... and who loses?... the sponsors.

Hopefully... it may encourage all teams to end up like Slipstream... but there is going to be a major shrinking in money perhaps before that happens.

Poor Bruyneel.

Ahhhh the soup Nazi.... where is he now ?

It seems political to me re. CONI. Since when have the Italians been against doping?



Yes can see Basso suspension ending a day before the Giro........ then he'll ride for LPR.... that would make Bruyneel set his entire stash on fire ! (well he'll have a quick shot of pot belge for old times sake)

It seems political to me re. CONI. Since when have the Italians been against doping?

But the way this damages cycling IMO is it makes the sponsorship gamble even worse. It further increases the risk of teams being excluded for things out of their control. Okay... so maybe Astana and High Road are villains and they have doping clouds over some of their riders... but what is the policy here? Where is the line in the sand? How does a sponsor know what is going to happen to their team (re. invites to major races) if a couple of their riders get exposed Puerto style... for indiscretions they were unaware of when they hired them? It seems a continuation of warring factions... and who loses?... the sponsors.

Hopefully... it may encourage all teams to end up like Slipstream... but there is going to be a major shrinking in money perhaps before that happens.To me, it just seems like CONI is trying to act against the riders protected by the Spanish government. So, yeah, probably political, but probably not unjust. And I don't think the situation is as bad as you make it here. The message to sponsors is clear - if you want your team invited, don't hire riders who have a cloud of suspicion over them, especially like OP with the obvious coverups by the higher ups to save other sports.

All of this discussion and only two of the four Pro Tour teams that were not invited are discussed. I would think the other two would be much bigger news as they would seem to be shocking non-invites...at least based on the wording they used.

All of this discussion and only two of the four Pro Tour teams that were not invited are discussed. I would think the other two would be much bigger news as they would seem to be shocking non-invites...at least based on the wording they used.Discus...

To me, it just seems like CONI is trying to act against the riders protected by the Spanish government. So, yeah, probably political, but probably not unjust. And I don't think the situation is as bad as you make it here. The message to sponsors is clear - if you want your team invited, don't hire riders who have a cloud of suspicion over them, especially like OP with the obvious coverups by the higher ups to save other sports.Until CONI opened up its investigation... it would have ben reasonable to assume from a sponsors standpoint that the OP case was closed (however wrong that decision was). Furthermore, my point extended to the opinion that sponsors can never know the entire, yet-to-be-exposed, histories of the riders they hire.

Until CONI opened up its investigation... it would have ben reasonable to assume from a sponsors standpoint that the OP case was closed (however wrong that decision was). Furthermore, my point extended to the opinion that sponsors can never know the entire, yet-to-be-exposed, histories of the riders they hire.I don't think OP = closed is a reasonable assumption though. Wasn't there an attempt to get to some of the OP stuff last year from that German investigator (forget the name right now)? Fair point about the yet-to-be-esposed-history; but this should encourage the teams to adopt measures similar to what Slipstream has done. If the sponsors lay down some such conditions to the team managers (prior to funding the team) to ensure that they at least look serious about combating doping, there shouldn't be much problem. But we all know about Bruyneel's method of "combating doping", and the T-Mobile team has just recently been hit with the revelation of the major doping history. So, their exclusion should not be too surprising for the sponsors. All I am saying is this is not a case of "teams not being invited randomly" to cause panic among sponsors.

I don't think OP = closed is a reasonable assumption though. Wasn't there an attempt to get to some of the OP stuff last year from that German investigator (forget the name right now)? Fair point about the yet-to-be-esposed-history; but this should encourage the teams to adopt measures similar to what Slipstream has done. If the sponsors lay down some such conditions to the team managers (prior to funding the team) to ensure that they at least look serious about combating doping, there shouldn't be much problem. But we all know about Bruyneel's method of "combating doping", and the T-Mobile team has just recently been hit with the revelation of the major doping history. So, their exclusion should not be too surprising for the sponsors. All I am saying is this is not a case of "teams not being invited randomly" to cause panic among sponsors.And I am not defending Astana or Stapleton. And I agree that a your pro tour full of Slipstreams is where we need to end up. I am just concerned that cycling has to walk a tightrope to get there, and a continuation of everyone trying to outhurt each other, may cause damage that makes it difficult to recover from. Its not about covering things up. The omerta should be broken. The truth should come out. But future sponsors (and current for that matter) are always weighing up risks, and they will see risk from this type of measure that goes beyond their control. Even Slipstream carries risk that one of their "clean" riders is not busted in a Vienna lab style case, where the doping was unbeknownst to them.

Really the problem here occurs from the fact that the initial investigation was covered up. It is this slow bleed of revelation/cover-up that makes it risky. Get the friggin SWAT team in there and blow this thing wide open. Doctors, DS's, Labs, everything. Unfortunately... UCI has too much to be scared of, if everything is revealed IMO (in the wider picture... not specifically OP)

Well, also remember the Italian investigation on Puerto. So something tells me RCS and ASO have discussed this, and chances are ASO will not invite Giro 'banned' teams... if for no other reason than face them being arrested/hauled by carabinieri in for questioning during the TdF stages that come over the border.

The plot thickens...
When the Tour route was announced I thought that the rest day in Italy was for a 'reason' whether it was to make it difficult for the couriers to get to the blood bags teams or maybe a 'san remo' style raid.
But maybe the Italian investigation is the reason, if they can't race on italian soil, then they can't ride the Tour.
It's a big coincidence I think.