Astana Banned From The Tour And All Other Aso Events!!!

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Astana's Ban:

http://www.velonews.com/article/72000

Contador's Reaction:

http://www.velonews.com/article/72011

I personally never really trusted Astana. What are they going to do? Will Bruyneel finally call it a quits? It might be like the tour last year where no previous winner will be on the start line. What has the sport come to?

The sport is running its obvious course, as no one can really be sure who's doping and who isn't. I think most people are finding that their real passion for professional cycling has slipped down a few notches. The last few years have teased us with claim after claim of fixes to the doping problem within the teams and then finding out that it going on anyway. Fans are getting sick of it and more importantly, sponsors are running away in droves because the negative press reflects poorly on them. At the top, the ASO decides to ban Astana if for no other reason than to show that they're willing to do anything at this point to regain public trust. I think it's a message of frustration. Maybe a few innocents are going to be unfairly punished because of this. Maybe anyone signing with a pro team with a checkered past should think twice before they do it, or be realistic about the consequences. Maybe the teams themselves know it's not going to be fixed anytime soon and they're just going to milk the sport for what they can until it all unravels anyway.

No matter how you look at the situation, it's a bloody mess.

Hi all CJ here in Oldsmar, FL.

Let's start this on a positive note

The Tour of California, which is taking place this week, is 650 miles of pro level cycling in 7 days. Last week I took on a personal challenge of riding a century a day for 7 days.
I rode the first one in 6:38 (this is ride time, not elapsed - I did stop for refueling/snack breaks at subway and 7-11's daily) and the last one in 5:45. Now that is no where near pro level time, but what I have done is join a non-religious "700 Club" for amateur cyclists.

Next challenge a double century.


Now to the Levi / Team Astana situation...
1. I am not a lawyer
2. I will limit mostlinks to the user friendly, Wikipedia.
(Additional links can be found on it's pages)
3. I would like to see all the B.S. in cycling end.

Tour of California is rolling along nicely and coverage can be watched nightly on the Versus Network (VS), formerly the Outdoor Life Network (OLN).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Tour_of_California (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Tour_of_California)
http://www.amgentourofcalifornia.com/ (http://www.amgentourofcalifornia.com/)

Much drug controversy has tainted the world of sports in the past few years, as we all know professional cycling has been hit especially hard and many of it's riders have become a disappointment to fans worldwide. One such disappointment was with "Astana Team" during last year's Tour de France.

On that team is professional rider Andreas Kloden. I want to mention that there isn't a bigger fan of Andreas Kloden than yours truly :D . Although, he has been found to be drug-free, following his career has been a rollercoaster. From celebratory moments on the TdF podium (2 second place finishes - Thanks Floyd "Luckless" / "Bannedis" Landis, whatever :eek: .) to dealing with bad boy Jan Ulrich as a teammate to 1st at Paris-Nice in 2000, to scratching my head thinking why is he with Vino and not taking command of a team of his own (when he signed with Astana) to a bronze at the Sidney Olympics, to a first place at the Germany National Road Race Championship.

Well, last year while stationed in Guam, I ordered an Astana jersey to show my support to Kloden and his team, but mostly just for Kloden. I bought it from an eBay seller based in Switzerland and the jersey was delivered surprisingly fast, but when it did I wasn't all that happy. The story took its bitter turn two days after I made my purchase, with that entire Vino-dope-o-rama :mad: / Bye-bye Astana ordeal. Well, I wasn't mad about my purchase. In my head I added up the facts. Fire Vino & anyone associated, reconstruct, and proceed. That makes sense. Then, I was elated when I heard Bruyneel accepted the kingpin job. Next I heard Contador followed as did Levi, then Horner.. UGH (in a Charlie Brown-esque way)!!! I though, "Where was my dude Kloden?" At first, after the Astana pull-out, he was talking about retirement. He was saying that anyone could drop something in his food or drink when he went out to eat and then he'd be out of the running. That statement, to me, seemed to come after being extremely frustrated by everything that had happened in cycling and on the team on as well.

Well, I was happy to hear that he was staying on with Astana and had the likes of the 2007 TdF winner Contador... American, Leipheimer & fellow American Chris Horner to work with (could you imagine if YOU showed up at your work place and instead of the knuckleheads you currently work with, they were there... I don't care what anyone thinks, for me that would be "pretty cool"). So much of the team has changed. It's backbone has been RIPPED out and reconstructed completely. This seemsto be setting the stage for another Bruyneel team of destiny.

Before I continue let me fill you in a bit on what the ASO* is. By definition, the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) is part of the French media group, EPA (Editions Philippe Amaury), and for many years has become well-known as the organizer of various major sporting events, including the Tour de France and the Paris-Nice professional cycling road races.

Well, in case you haven't learned the latest news, on Wednesday, February 13, 2008 it was revealed that the Amaury Sport Organisation* (ASO) has decided not to invite Team Astana to the Tour de France or any ASO events :mad: (Paris-Nice, Paris-Roubaix, Paris-Tours, and the Tour de France… Oh… and if Team Astana wanted to “motor up” and compete in the Dakar Rally they couldn't simply because, the ASO is in charge of organizing that race as well.

SLIGHTLY OFF SUBJECT: One note on the Dakar Rally for 2009. The ASO has it scheduled to be held in Chile and Argentina :confused: . Hmmm, who needs to be drug tested now? What's next? Perhaps the Tour De France will be held in Cambodia... or Fiji perhaps?!?!).

BOYCOTT
At first, I thought that a good way to show support for Astana would be to boycott watching and/or following the Amaury Sport Organization* races.


If we boycott, it could hurt us as fans of cycling, because if we aren't watching then the network's ratings drop overall, in the timeslot, and for the style/type of programming being broadcast. As ratings drop sponsors have the choice to pull out. When the sponsors pull out then networks look for another way to generate sponsorship revenue (via other programming). Well, what if the Versus Network took a stand against the ASO and said "F" to any contracts on principle. It seems that every normal human being believes that Astana should be able to compete. Soon pro riders will be complaining that if you aren't competing against the best what does the title mean? That is the single biggest reason that the year Landis had the title for a few minutes... What if all those top-5 riders or 2005 were there and allowed to race? Where would Landis be? :confused: Probably near to where he is right now... Nearly forgotten about.

Anyway, if the ASO had a personal issue against a single Astana rider, then that should have been handled accordingly, but this team has been singled out. The Versus Network could have and could still be seen as a strong-arm if they would announce the coverage of some of the 40+ races that Astana is to take part in this year, rather than follow the ASO organized races (See the latest Team Astana Schedule here: http://www.johanbruyneel.com/astana-schedule.aspx (http://www.johanbruyneel.com/astana-schedule.aspx)). I, for one, would watch.

POWER LOADING THE ROSTER
Looking at the Astana roster, one must agree that there is a lot of talent on this team. When I found out that Astana was getting all the "players" that they now have, I reflected back on the day the the Chicago Bulls signed ultra-rebounder Dennis Rodman – after already having Jordan and Pippin,. Although not as dominating of a squad, Astana was poised to leave an impression. I believe that the ASO knew that. I further believe with some foresight the ASO might have also tried to used this action to split up the team and thus, see the sponsorship completely withdraw dooming the future of the team. Even Kloden has been linked to articles that mention him leaving, although as of this writing his contract is standing until the end of the year and in an article by Susan Westemeyer at cyclingnews.com (http://cyclingnews.com/) (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2008/feb08/feb15news2 (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2008/feb08/feb15news2)) it states that Kloden was interviewed by the German press, yet Kloden and his manager were both surprised by this news since the German rider had yet to speak to any journalists.

SPEAKING OF GERMANY
When the German State Television networks ARD and ZDF became was tired of doping scandals they "packed up" and went home, thus boycotting a sport that more than a million Germans tune in to annually.
(Source: http://lioninoil.blogspot.com/2007/07/german-state-tv-unhappy-about-tour.html (http://lioninoil.blogspot.com/2007/07/german-state-tv-unhappy-about-tour.html))

"Television networks exert a big influence on the cultural landscape, and while ARD/ZDF are German and this might appear to impact on local conditions only, their decision has already gone global, couple that with the telecommunications company T-Mobile reconsidering their sponsorship within cycling"
(Source: http://tdf.sbs.com.au/index.php?pid=blogs&bid=2&cid=31 (http://tdf.sbs.com.au/index.php?pid=blogs&bid=2&cid=31)

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?
Well T-mobile is now gone. Think about it... The average person could tell you that T-Mobile is probably most recognized in the USA for being one of the choices in cell phone service, repetitive TV commercials and kiosks in your local mall. Now let's look at T-Mobile in the cycling world: Cyclists scowl at things like riders Jan Ullrich (fired 07.21.06) & Oscar Sevilla's issues (fired 07.20.06) as well as their Sporting Director Rudy Pevenage (fired 07.09.06). Former riders came forth in May of 2007 both from Team Telekom (name of the T-Mobile team prior to its sponsorship - THINK: One day the Colts play in Baltimore, the next in Indianapolis... It is that type of simliar... well kinda). The riders who did step forth is kind of disturbing for me since it included Rolf Aldag. He was the man who replaced fired Sporting Director Rudy Pevenage on T-Mobile :mad: . Also Bjarne Riis (came forth to admit 5 years worth of EPO useage (doping) on May 25, 2007), he is currently working with the rather successful CSC Team as their Head Sports Director
(WOW! …And the ASO allows this :mad: ... Nice job... Is it me or is it just an extremely amazing coincidence that pronouncing ASO as a word sounds similar to that all too common, foul-mouthed "A-word"? :cool: Yeah just as I thought).

Oh, I can't just let CSC & team manager Bjarne Riss :mad: off hook, so my argument continues. I want to note, in case you forgot, that Tyler Hamilton :mad: as well as Ivan Basso :mad: were both a part of CSC... Coincidence or not Hamilton was also on the Phonak Team when the poop hit the fan in his cycling life… Does Phonak sound familiar (no pun intended, they make hearing aids)? Well, that is because that is the team that American Floyd “stripped of his TdF title” Landis was on when he rose to victory and fell to ... blah, blah, blah... yeah, yeah... you heard it all before.

Ahh! Forgive and forget... or just forget to look at what was going on, as in Walter Godefroot :mad: did with, then rider, Bjarne Riis. So who cares about Godefroot. Well, I do for one. He, as much as any of the guilty parties, has tainted the sport. On three separate occasions in a 17 year managerial career, Mr. Godefroot has been DQ'd because of crossing the "Just Say NO" laws that were firmly in place. When Riis, who was the TdF winner in 1996 and a member of Team Telekom of which Godefroot was the coach, admitted to using EPO :mad: Riis claims Godefroot turned a blind eye to drug use on the team :mad: . Nice Job! Remember when you were a kid and cried out "Put me in Coach!"? This sadly seemed to have changed to "Put it in, Coach!" As in EPO...

Prior to the 2006 cycling season, Walter Godefroot escaped... umm I mean "retired" as team manager and from cycling overall. Now sit back and grab a beverage because this is where it gets funny/ironic or sad... I am not sure which though. After Team Astana was excluded from competing in the 2006 TdF, Godefroot returned to manage. So, to what team did he join? Yep, you guess it - Team Astana. OK, so perhaps you saw that one coming, but did you see this… So, why on earth did this rancid-meat return? Well it happened because Team Astana member and leader Alexandre Vinokourov requested it and because we stand where we now stand… to the future of that occurrence, we sarcastically can now say, “Great, just great”.

Back to the German TV issue: Their case was special as it was admired by some and scorned by others. In this instance Versus could do the same thing. Although (and pardon my terms here) they don't have the balls :( since the TdF equates cash flow from big corporate sponsorship and quite frankly they would never side with "principle".

You have people all over the world wanting to see clean riders in a clean race and this is what Astana and other teams are trying to do. Do you really think that a sponsor of a team wants to learn that their team has been ejected from the world's top events (in any sport)? To suffer embarrassment of that magnitude after investing time, money and trust in what you have built... Sigh. It defines humiliation magnified beyond comparison. A ban for life and a fine of 500,000 dollars to both the team and the rider should be in place. If you think that isn't enough then simply ask former Major League Baseball player, Pete Rose, how much a lifetime ban sucks (PS I am pro "Charlie Hustle" being included in the H.O.F. in Cooperstown).

Another thing that is kind of sad is that there are fans, some I personally know, that now argue (and mumble to themselves like delusional street degenerates, I am sure) that everyone is doping. I blame the sport on their mental state. On the fact they have been so disappointed by the sport they love - on the professional scale - that they argue a solitary point and sound as redundant as Raymond Babbit (Dustin Hoffman's character in the 1998 Barry Levinson film "Rain Man").

In case you are lost by all this talk... Perhaps you are a recreational cyclist or a serious mountain biker... or consider yourself something other than a follower of the TdF (that would be the Tour de France - lol). Here are some helpful links in case you are tired of being without a map.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_Kl%C3%B6den (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_Kl%C3%B6den)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Seguros-W%C3%BCrth_team (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Seguros-W%C3%BCrth_team)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astana_Team (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astana_Team)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Bruyneel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Bruyneel)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levi_Leipheimer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levi_Leipheimer)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operaci%C3%B3n_Puerto_doping_case (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operaci%C3%B3n_Puerto_doping_case)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contador (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contador)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_CSC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_CSC)


http://www.steephill.tv/ (http://www.steephill.tv/)


Now go watch the Tour of California race coverage.

Best Regards,
CJ

You had me at hello.

You had me at hello.That post lost me after your first sentence. Yawn!!!!:rolleyes:

That post lost me after your first sentence. Yawn!!!!:rolleyes:That should have been posted in the GT section. Kinda hard to follow unless you are a bit up to date on the politics of the pro-teams and race organizers....

That should have been posted in the GT section. Kinda hard to follow unless you are a bit up to date on the politics of the pro-teams and race organizers....Or you're a member of Paceline! Their ranting has given me a few laughs:D