Armstrong finds new sponsor for Astana

[polsongrizz]

Armstrong finds new sponsor for Astana

BOURG-SAINT-MAURICE, France (AP)—Lance Armstrong says he’s found a new American sponsor to back Astana next year. He won’t say if he will stay with the team or start his own squad.

“Making a very cool announcement on Thursday re: a new American partner for our team in 2010 (and beyond). Stay tuned!” Armstrong said on his Twitter feed Tuesday, without elaborating.

The seven-time Tour de France champion returned to competition this year after 3 1/2 years of retirement, and has previously hinted he could ride for another season, including a return to the Tour.

Armstrong told The Associated Press by phone after Tuesday’s 16th stage he was leaning toward riding in next year’s Tour.

“There’s a pretty good chance I’ll be there,” Armstrong said.

He wouldn’t say whether he will quit Astana, which has been hampered by serious financial problems this year.

In an e-mail to The Associated Press on Tuesday, Armstrong’s manager Mark Higgins wrote that he will ride “for sure” in the 2010 Tour.

In May, the International Cycling Union threatened to withdraw Astana’s racing license after riders went unpaid for two months. Armstrong is riding for free this season but led teammates in a protest at the Giro d’Italia when they wore jerseys with the sponsor’s name faded out.

Astana receives most of its financial support from Kazakh state holding company Samruk-Kazyna, but the central Asian nation’s economy has been hard hit by the global financial crisis.

Before the Giro, Armstrong said he received “high interest” from sponsors willing to back his cycling team if he took control of Astana.

[ChetSteadman]

Brunyeel's leaving, Contador's leaving, Vino's coming back. LA is as good as gone from Astana - though he may just be announcing something for his U23 team.

[UNHWildCats]

Contador isnt leaving Astana. But everyone else is reportedly being fired after the Tour de France. That Vito guy is coming back and the team will be rebuilt around him and Contador.

Lance announced today he will be starting Team RadioShack and will be back in France next year with the team, while no announcement was made on who else will be joining the team its likely atleast a few current Astana riders will join the team.

[ChetSteadman]

Contador isnt leaving Astana. But everyone else is reportedly being fired after the Tour de France. That Vito guy is coming back and the team will be rebuilt around him and Contador.

Lance announced today he will be starting Team RadioShack and will be back in France next year with the team, while no announcement was made on who else will be joining the team its likely atleast a few current Astana riders will join the team.

Brunyeel's management company owns most everything that is Astana, save for a few contracts from the Vino days, when the team was ripe with doping. He owns the buses, cars, contracts with all the support personnel and most importantly, the Pro Tour license. The team currently known as Astana may not even be able to race on the Pro Tour next season - good luck keeping talent like that. (they could race as a wild card, but Vino's not going to garner that kind of respect)

It has been speculated that Contador's contract isn't with Astana, it is with JB's management company. If this is true (it comes from a pretty good source), then Contador will be free to do whatever he wants at the end of the season, if not sooner. Rumors have been ripe in Spain that Fernando Alonso (F1 champion) is starting his own Spanish team to feature AC.

[UNHWildCats]

Contador isnt leaving Astana. But everyone else is reportedly being fired after the Tour de France. That Vito guy is coming back and the team will be rebuilt around him and Contador.

Lance announced today he will be starting Team RadioShack and will be back in France next year with the team, while no announcement was made on who else will be joining the team its likely atleast a few current Astana riders will join the team.

Brunyeel's management company owns most everything that is Astana, save for a few contracts from the Vino days, when the team was ripe with doping. He owns the buses, cars, contracts with all the support personnel and most importantly, the Pro Tour license. The team currently known as Astana may not even be able to race on the Pro Tour next season - good luck keeping talent like that. (they could race as a wild card, but Vino's not going to garner that kind of respect)

It has been speculated that Contador's contract isn't with Astana, it is with JB's management company. If this is true (it comes from a pretty good source), then Contador will be free to do whatever he wants at the end of the season, if not sooner. Rumors have been ripe in Spain that Fernando Alonso (F1 champion) is starting his own Spanish team to feature AC.

ok. From what I had read it sounded like Astana was firing everyone except Contador and moving forward, I guess that is the plan and they will have to get a license elsewhere, from the way i read it, I assumed the funders of the team.

In any case, Astana wants to continue on with Contador and the Vito dude and a team made up mostly of Spaniards. So we'll see.

All I know is I will be much happier not having to root for a team with that bitch Contador on it.... pissed off his team again yesterday when he attacked and left Kloden and Lance behind... Brunyeel was pissed... said they were perfectly positioned for a podium sweep before that.

[ChetSteadman]

I'll agree with you about Contador - he's not much of a team guy. I know he's been put under a great deal of stress with the whole LA joining the team at a late date, but he's completely ridden for himself in this tour. The chance existed for Astana to sweep the podium or at least place 3 in the top 4. Instead, Contador attacked his teammate and left him alone when Kloden had done nothing but ride for the team. It's a completely different situation that what Lance dealt with, as his support riders didn't have GC aspirations. We'll see next season how good he is when he doesn't have a team of superstars to support him throughout the entire race. He's a magical climber and a very good time trialist, but if there's no one to ride tempo on the climbs for him, will he still have the energy to punch it on the final climbs?

The entire season has been a roller coaster for Astana, and it doesn't appear that it will change any time soon. First, the hubub surrounding Lance joining the team, then the riders weren't getting paid and the Pro Tour was about to yank the team's license because there has to be a guarantee in the bank of around $2mil to assure team solvency, Contador asked to be released from his contract to join Garmin-Slipstream, now the whole TdF issues. It's been a mess.

[BlueHen86]

I also agree regarding Contador not being a team player. He attacked Lance earlier in the tour, and yesterday he attacked Kloden. The sad thing is, he didn't need to do it, he was going to win the tour anyway, so why piss people off?

It will be interesting to see what kind of team Lance puts together next year. It will be hard or him to win the tour, but I wouldn't bet against him.

[ChetSteadman]

Now Contador may be linked back to Garmin, as he was before the Tour...

http://tour-de-france.velonews.com/arti ... -t-comment

[UNHWildCats]

Greg LeMond is accusing Contador of doping... says the speed that Contador went up a recent climb is impossible for any athlete on earth.

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/32116251/ ... de_france/

In the article, LeMond wrote, "Never has a rider in the Tour climbed so fast," in reference to the 5.1-mile climb at an average gradient of 7.5 percent to the summit of Mount Verbier in the Pyrenees during Stage 15 on Sunday. Contador needed only 20 minutes and 55 seconds to climb it.

"How do you explain such a performance?" LeMond wrote. "According to the last information published by former Festina trainer and specialist in performance Antoine Vayer in [the French newspaper] Liberation, the Spanish rider would have needed a VO2 max (consummation of oxygen) of 99.5 ml/mn/kg to produce such an effort.

"To my knowledge this figure has never been achieved by any athlete in any sport. It is a bit like if you took a nice Mercedes out of the car showroom, lined it up on a Formula 1 circuit and won the race. There is something that is wrong. It would be interesting to know what is under the bonnet.

[ChetSteadman]

Greg LeMond is an asshole punk. He can't stand that someone could be better than him and throws out wild accusations without a shred of proof. He's living up to his French name.

[SeattleGriz]

Greg LeMond is an asshole punk. He can't stand that someone could be better than him and throws out wild accusations without a shred of proof. He's living up to his French name.

Lemond is right. There isn't a guy in the top 20 who is clean.

Look at BALCO. The riders are way beyond your mainstream performance enhancers. They are into designer performance enhancers that cannot be detected.

Ever heard of Operation Puerto? Contador was involved, they just didn't have enough to convict him.

On a separate note, do I care they are taking performance enhancing drugs? HELL NO! I love to see the freakish riding and have my jaw drop at how unreal they are.

[ChetSteadman]

It doesn't matter if they are clean or not (I personally don't care, either), but Lemond needs to learn that you don't make wild accusations with nothing other than suspicion. I read a great article on SI.com the other week about Europeans views on doping and how they take more of a "eh" view of positive test. It's pretty similar to baseball during the Big Mac - Sosa home run battle - we all secretly knew that they were dirty as hell, but no one really cared because it put on a good show.

[BlueHen86]

It doesn't matter if they are clean or not (I personally don't care, either), but Lemond needs to learn that you don't make wild accusations with nothing other than suspicion. I read a great article on SI.com the other week about Europeans views on doping and how they take more of a "eh" view of positive test. It's pretty similar to baseball during the Big Mac - Sosa home run battle - we all secretly knew that they were dirty as hell, but no one really cared because it put on a good show.

If they area all cheating, so be it, the race is fair. From what I've heard, it's hard to catch the cheaters because they are always ahead of the testers. By the time the testers know what to test for, the cheaters have moved on to a new drug. The best way to catch the cheaters would be to take multiple samples and test them years down the road. In my opinion, that is more trouble than it is worth. Who wants to find out 3 years from now that Contador is being striped of this years title because they finally found out what drugs he was taking? Who wants to find out 3 years from now that he winner of this years race is the guy who finished 21st? And then 5 years from now, we discover that the guy who finished 21st also cheated.

I think they should continue to test for drugs, and if they fail the drug test they should be punished. If they pass the test then they are clean. LeMond isn't helping the sport by declaring that someone who passed the drug tests is a cheater.