KZBlog

There’s some bad news for Kazakhstan officials who wish to hold on to Team Astana and its stable of super stars. The riders are protesting the fact that staff have not had their salaries paid by wearing faded jerseys in the Giro d’Italia. Specifically, the new jerseys show only faded logos sponsors who have not paid. That means that only KazMunaiGas (the national oil and gas company), Trek, SRAM, and Livestrong (Lance Armstrong’s foundation) have their logos clearly showing. Only Andrey Zetis chose to wear the original jersey. Zetis is the only Kazakhstan native on the nine-man team.

However despite not receiving salaries and the potential loss of sponsorship at the end of the month, Team Astana is doing very well in the Giro d’Italia! I found a nice article by Chris Horner describing his day riding in Stage 8, published in The Oregonian. He notes his food intake that day:

Yesterday – about 6,500 total calories

Breakfast: 1,100
Bowl of cereal with two yogurts in it, an omelet with 3 eggs and ham, bread with jam, and hot tea with about 6 tsp. sugar.

Before race: 430
PRC (pre-race Coke), candy bar (normally a Snickers).

Race: 2,455
Two race bars (SIS), 6 or 7 mini Cokes (65 calories each), two Clif shot blocs, three small euro sandwiches, 3 to 5 gels, and two Snickers.

After race in bus: 650
Sandwich, two Cokes, candy bar.

At hotel: 450
Bowl of cereal with milk and honey, crackers.

Dinner: 1,300
Salad, pasta sauce, meat and potatoes, dessert

After a while, it gets hard to choke down that much food every day! But at least we have a great staff and a great chef to keep things tasty and interesting.

and after describing the days race, praises his teammates and ends optimistically:

The legs are feeling great, and the team is riding incredibly strong. Levi, Lance Armstrong and I are getting better every day! So now its time for me to go to dinner and patch up the holes, so I’m ready to go again on Sunday.

After Stage 8 on Saturday, Chris Horner is in 8th place overall, and teammate Levi Leipheimer is in fourth.

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More coverage of Team Astana’s financial problems here: Team Astana in trouble and here: Kazakhstan May Lose Team