A little on Rubiera

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Interesting that he mentions that the team presentation in Kazakhstan has been cancelled. Does this mean that some of the members of the consortium of sponsors is wavering?

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Interesting that he mentions that the team presentation in Kazakhstan has been cancelled. Does this mean that some of the members of the consortium of sponsors is wavering?
without Vino and Kash, all it means is they could not give a shit.

There are a lot of bad things that happen to Astana, some of which are very likely.

Klodi will probably be linked to T-Mobile's blood doping.

Contador may be banned by the Italians, or maybe just enough dirt will be thrown on him that he becomes persona non grata for some races.

Kazakh spnosors could pull out. They are probably not too happy now that Vino and Kash are gone. If Contador and Klodi cannot race the TdF then are the sponsors from a country that celebrates the Running of the Jew going to rely on Leipheimer.

If any rider tests positive then the whole team will be in the dog house given their previous doping history.

i would not bet that they make it to the end of the season.

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Interesting that he mentions that the team presentation in Kazakhstan has been cancelled. Does this mean that some of the members of the consortium of sponsors is wavering?Sure they will pull out. The "consortium of sponsors" is a farce in the first place. Can anyone name any of them? The consortium concept is not real good for brand recognition.

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Sure they will pull out. The "consortium of sponsors" is a farce in the first place. Can anyone name any of them? The consortium concept is not real good for brand recognition.Well, the entire sponsorship of Astana was set up by Vino with his fellow Kazakhs for him.Ergo, a Government-sponsored team set up to secure the first Kazakh victory in the TdF.

Now that the reason for the team has disappeared, I am surprised they have come back for more this year at all.

I also do not believe that the team will last out the entire year.

I doubt that Kazakh railways and Astana Airlines are so concerned about their standing with the UCI after all...

I see the predictions are that Astana won't last till the end of the season (even their Tour participation is in doubt)... I won't argue that... The team is artificially made, that's sure. Rotten too.
I just wonder how master mind of the Tour winning strategy Bruyneel will handle the crash... What's he going to say? How will sound his spin?

Not sure if Astana will last through the year or not, but I think that Bruyneel has a lot of 'friends' (does he have pictures?) at UCI that will try their damnedness to protect him.

If Astana does implode, Bruyneel will blame the French, especially ASO, and announce his retirement so that he can spend more time with his family. And his fans will believe every word of it.

And he'll be back next year in a duo with Saiz.

If Astana does survive to compete in 2008 - it will be as a result of the UCI once again running away from making a decision.

My congettion: JB is hired by Kazakhstan pricipaly due to covert connections to a potent UCI hand …This is how he evaded positives…I presuppose it is Verbruggen or Zorzoli…Zorzoli more probabile

Another bad sign is that a Swiss court recently ordered the 2007 rider salaries to be paid out of Astana's bank guarantee. When Bruyneel came on board the team was supposedly going to pay the salaries through Bruyneel. Evidently nothing has been done.