Astana to ride the Giro

thoughtforfood

Astana pulled at least 2 riders in the last few days, Noval being one of them. (I believe he was a replacement already) The old "stomach problems" means that the riders most likely failed internal tests and were pulled so they wouldn't fail in the center ring. Gotta keep up appearences.

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earth_dweller

But NGC is now suddenly a co-sponsor of Lampre for the Giro. I assume that was their payoff for this.... weird that they would now want an investigation

hawkeye87

According to the Velonews article from Stage 5 (http://www.velonews.com/article/762...-to-stage-5-win), Astana may indeed short change the Giro as they proposed before they were "banned".

Andrew Hood reported the following:


It was both Levi and Alberto stating, at the beginning of the year, that they would use the Giro only as a warmup.

Turns out that even after the Kazak government greased the palms of the Giro organizers to get in, Team Astana may turn around and spit in their face afterall.

I cannot imagine what else Alberto would pull himself out for at this point. If he was only going to prep for the Olympics, would finishing the Giro do that much damage to a training program (ignoring the blood draws, etc.)?

I can only hope he hasn't heard positive news about a chance to defend his 2007 TdF title and that the Kazak's managed to threaten the French with energy tactics.

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bambi

The Giro was a warm race maybe (?) for Levi, Contador had never any ambitions to ride the Giro, even as a warm up race, and he was never even scheduled to ride the race......
That was the lame reason in the first place RCS gave why they didn't get the invitation; sending too weak team. Jani was supposed to lead the team....

Going to a to a 3 week GT straight from the beach is not exactly the best preparation, dope or no dope.

You are so full of BS that it's hard to believe. Hate the team and the riders as much as you like, but don't make a complete fool out of yourself while doing that....

Dauphine is Contador's (and probably LL's) next goal. Would be great if they bashed the race on French soil!!!

hawkeye87

Bambi, get over yourself already.

You know that many of the forumers here are not blindly faithful Discovery fans who have taken their scientology-like beliefs and transferred them to Astana.

You must miss all of the discourse from the Paceline forum days that you feel you need to vent your spleen here.

You may not recall, as it would have required an adult-level attention span, but the RCS was also peeved at any team's use of the Giro as a "warm-up" race for the TdF. I recall reading articles either on Velonews or Cyclingnews that indicated Levi or Alberto may have ridden the Giro as a tune-up but JB instead promoted Jani as the main star.

Regardless, my question was to figure out what AC was going for without wanting to get into a doping discussion. I cannot imagine the Dauphine would be that much of a draw but I guess if Astana is going for the Pro Tour team championship (isn't that a big feat this year) or wanting to show that they can win all the week long stage races, they'd want to continue down that path.

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Powerful Pete

ROTFL. We are the champions of the warm-up stage races for the GTs! Yeah!

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Leafer

Well, it would at least give them something to talk about while they're sitting at home watching the Tour de France on tv.

Crankyfeet

And it would be a trophy for the taking if they focussed on it... since most of the other teams would be using the Dauphine as a means to another end...

TheDarkLord

My theory is that JB's cult delegates duties to the priests/priestesses who participate in the rituals there. Bambi's duty is to keep an eye on this forum and promptly report anything interesting here.

Regarding AC, didn't he somewhat recently say that he wasn't sure whether he would ride to win, or ride to support LL or Kloden? If he is talking of pulling out of the Giro now, that is quite an about turn from his previous position. Maybe he is realizing that his emergency stock of vitamins aren't working so well? But given that the mountain stages haven't started yet, I don't get what this fuss is all about.

RdBiker

I was a bit surprised to read that Contador would be riding support for a team mate. Now that he's talking about going for the win or then not riding at all I'm hearing the talk that I was expecting. I understand that he's a great rider but I appriciate riders who are willing to give something to their teammates after they get help from them. For example I think Boonen thanked his run-up man Steegmans? for getting him a victory by letting Steegmans? win a stage last year.

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TheDarkLord

But to what extent have LL, AC and Kloden helped each other? Kloden is basically a new teammate for LL and AC. And I don't think LL was really pulling for AC or vice versa in Disco, but if I'm wrong about this please do correct.

thoughtforfood

Jani was going to lead.....what about Goose....or Skinny and Mighty Mouse?......I think that the Foiled Flash is the real strength of the team......or maybe Hogzilla? Wow, I will be so glad when Captain Kazakh returns to ride with the Seamless Wonder Lizard and the Stupified Spinner.

Hey Bambi, I seem to remember you crowing about how well Astana was going to do in the race seening how "Crazy Strong" they are. I cannot wait for the Tour de NoAstana so you Astanaphiles can go back to your holes. Newsflash oh tiny deer, they didn't have time to gear up on a proper doping regimine, and they are suffering because of that. I am willing to bet that some bags of blood and dramatic increase in form will appear within the next 2 weeks though, so all hope is not lost for you there Ostrich...I mean Bambi. By the way, how is the Paceline Forum going?

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Wayne666

I don't know, Contador is being very attentive. I have seen him regularly right near the front of the bunch. Including today when he finished just behind Bennati in the main bunch. Leipheimer on the other hand lost ~20 seconds today by being far back and getting caught behind some gaps at the finish.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Contador come on quite strong from the TT on. Probably will get his oil changed and be right in the thick of it in the final week.

Crankyfeet

LOL...