Astana not ready for Giro

John Forrest Tomlinson

On Mon, 2 Jun 2008 16:54:37 -0700 (PDT), hizark21 <hizark21@yahoo.com>
wrote:

>Personally I think Astana had a fairly strong case to be in the TDF,
>even before the Giro. Now the ASO may have to rethink their decision

You don't get it. If anything, the stronger the results, the less
likely ASO is to take the team. A good performance in the Tour of
Italy doesn't in any way support the case that the team is clean.

Ryan Cousineau

In article <77t844dr0ham00ivg0f1qae73ctq4jhhof@4ax.com>,
John Forrest Tomlinson <usenetremove@jt10000.com> wrote:

> On Mon, 2 Jun 2008 15:01:40 -0700 (PDT), hizark21 <hizark21@yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>
> >(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php...un08/jun02news2 )
> >Bruyneels thinks that Astana should be allowed to enter the TDF. I
> >agree with this. So given this fact I think that Contador should be
> >preparing the TDF rather than going on vacation..
> >
>
> But isn't winnng a grand tour these days pretty much the same as a
> positive doping result? So it means Astana is out. If they'd sucked
> all year they'd be back in for 09. As it is now, I doubt the'll get
> into an ASO races in 2009.

In final ITT of the Giro, Millar was 13th, which means Contador and
several other elite riders were, as they say, above The Line.

The big shockers were of course that nice Mr. Pate and Mr. Vande Velde.

--
Ryan Cousineau rcousine@gmail.com http://www.wiredcola.com/
"In other newsgroups, they killfile trolls."
"In rec.bicycles.racing, we coach them."

David B.

hizark21 wrote:
> The only possible reason to exclude Astana was Basso.

Hardly. The UCI is still pretending to be in charge. ASO needs to make
a statement as to the UCI's actual status.

David

bjw@mambo.ucolick.org

On Jun 2, 6:15 pm, Ryan Cousineau <rcous...@gmail.com> wrote:
> In article <77t844dr0ham00ivg0f1qae73ctq4jh...@4ax.com>,
> John Forrest Tomlinson <usenetrem...@jt10000.com> wrote:
>
> > On Mon, 2 Jun 2008 15:01:40 -0700 (PDT), hizark21 <hizar...@yahoo.com>
> > wrote:
>
> > >(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php...un08/jun02news2)
> > >Bruyneels thinks that Astana should be allowed to enter the TDF. I
> > >agree with this. So given this fact I think that Contador should be
> > >preparing the TDF rather than going on vacation..
>
> > But isn't winnng a grand tour these days pretty much the same as a
> > positive doping result? So it means Astana is out. If they'd sucked
> > all year they'd be back in for 09. As it is now, I doubt the'll get
> > into an ASO races in 2009.
>
> In final ITT of the Giro, Millar was 13th, which means Contador and
> several other elite riders were, as they say, above The Line.
>
> The big shockers were of course that nice Mr. Pate and Mr. Vande Velde.
>

So, my conspiracy theory is that the last-minute Giro
invite to Astana was a test of Bruyneel and/or Contador:
"Let's see how they do in a tour on a couple weeks
notice, and find out if they suck or test positive
because it's the wrong cycle of their program." Or
alternatively to give Astana an opportunity to claim
their innocence and embarrass ASO, if they did well.

A weakness of this theory is that it's not obvious
who would orchestrate it, since the UCI, ASO, and
RCS Sport all have different interests. Maybe it
was Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

The other possible conspiracy theory is that RCS
intended to invite Astana all along and let Bruyneel
know unofficially so he could prepare (or "prepare").
If Lafferty still cared, he probably would have
pointed this possibility out already.

Ben

Donald Munro

bjw@mambo.ucolick.org wrote:
> A weakness of this theory is that it's not obvious who would orchestrate
> it, since the UCI, ASO, and RCS Sport all have different interests. Maybe
> it was Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

They must be planning a stage finish at the Casino Royale in the next TDF.

> The other possible conspiracy theory is that RCS intended to invite
> Astana all along and let Bruyneel know unofficially so he could prepare
> (or "prepare"). If Lafferty still cared, he probably would have pointed
> this possibility out already.

Perhaps if SchwartzSoft could transfer the Lafferty bots fixation from
LANCE to Bruyneel the rbr July hit rate would improve. What does
Bruyneel's mom look like ?