The Dream Team is Over
After Contador’s win at the Tour de France and Lance Armstrong’s third place finish (not to mention Team Astana’s Andres Kloden in sixth place), Team Astana seemed to have demonstrated itself as a cycling power on the world stage. Unfortunately that will all come to an end now.
Lance Armstrong has confirmed that he will be riding for a US team next year, sponsored by Radio Shack. The reason Armstrong came to Team Astana for his comeback, manager and coach Johan Bruyneel, is also leaving Astana, most likely for the Radio Shack team. In an interview on July 21st, Bruyneel said it was time for a change, but he also blamed instability in the team, clearly a reference to Team Astana’s sponsorship troubles. He also seemed to feel that Kazakhstan rider and founder of Astana’s team, Alexandre Vinokourov, had acted unprofessionally in dealing with his comeback after two years of suspension due to a doping charge:
Internal trouble has been brewing since Monaco when banned rider Alexandre Vinokourov, who the Astana team was created around, gave a press conference saying either he or Bruyneel must quit the team after the Kazakh’s doping suspension ends on July 24.
“We still had to talk about his possible return, but he gave a press conference in Monaco the day before the race started in our team hotel,” said Bruyneel.
“Then some whispers from the Kazakhstan Cycling Federation reached my ears and things have started to become very clear for me. Astana is finished!”
The New York Times quoted Vinokourov as saying:
I don’t see myself riding for another team. I have no guarantee yet because I expect to negotiate with Bruyneel in the coming days. But it’s not possible that he disagrees. If Johan doesn’t want me, it will be up to him to leave the team.
which is rather aggressive language to use, especially before negotiations had begun.
In fact, Vinokourov is back cycling, racing in the Castillon-la-Bataille and the Tour de l’Ain, but not for Team Astana, which also competed. However, as Vinokourov has the ear of Danyal Akhmetov, head of the Kazakh Cycling Federation and former Prime Minister, and as he is arguably the only native Kazakhstani to win world fame in cycling, most commentators agree that it is only a matter of time before Vino is back on Team Astana.
He had hoped to build the team around now two-time Tour de France champion, Contador, but it appears he is out of luck. The French sports paper L’Equipe reports that Contador rejected a four-year, 16 million Euro c0ntract with Astana, which would have also given him full leadership of the team. His manager explained the rejection saying, “Alberto’s future wasn’t about money only.” It is unclear what will happen to Contador and we can only speculate whether he is leaving because he has a better offer, because of the sponsorship issues, or because of the way he was apparently treated as a second-class citizen in the shadow of Armstrong.
It is a shame that two champions are leaving Team Astana, but Vinokourov is more than just a consolation prize; he is a very good cyclist, although we’ll see what 2 years off the circut did to him and we do need to keep in mind that he is 36 years old now, only one year younger than Armstrong who got a lot of flack in the press as an old geezer who can’t get up the hills anymore. There are other solid riders on the roster including Kloden and Levi Leipiheimer. But in some ways I wish that Team Astana would go all Kazakhstani. Team Astana is essentially a national team, sponsored by the government and state enterprises. And one of the few teams out there (if not the only one) that it is not sponsored by private businesses, one of the few teams that carries the name of the capital of a country on it. It was founded by Vinokourov in order for him to gain control of his own team and bring it home, after his previous team was charged with doping. And let’s face it, the government is trying to use the team to build patriotism and improve the country’s image abroad. So if it is Team Astana, why aren’t there more locals on the team? If you want to build the popularity of cycling in the country (a strategy that is working well, by the way), why not invest in your own riders and show that winning comes from working hard and not from buying champions?
By the way, strangely enough one can buy New York Rangers jerseys here in Kazakhstan, and I even saw a Sacramento basketball jersey (which must be university or minor league), but Team Astana jerseys are impossible to find, even though demand is quite high following the Tour de France win! I see cyclists with the jerseys but I can’t find them anywhere–does anyone know where to get the costumes?
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