Surely its a choice between a large pay packet and knowing your place in the pecking order, or having the opportunity to 'race' and possibly win the Tour De France?.
I wouldn't say no consequence to Contador. If you remember the stage where Contador made his first mountain move, it was Armstrong who hung back on the tail of people chasing him and held them up. Additionally, Armstrong is arguably one of the most successful team time trial riders of all time. It was the team time trial that put Contador, Armstrong, Leipheimer, and Kloden high in the GC and hurt the Schleck brothers. Certainly later in the race, Astana was like two teams with separate helpers for Contador and Armstrong so your point is quite true at that time. I really wasn't until the last time trial that Contador was sure to win. Contador surely deserved to win but has not learned how to be a public champion. He probably lost a lot of endorsement deals with that outburst. He is only about 27 but needs to do better with the media to financially capitalize on his success.
You make your point so well that I almost agreed with you!. I had the impression that on the (all too few) mountain stages Contador could have ridden away whenever he wished. And surely he was looking out for Armstrongs podium position on Ventoux?. Respect is a two way thing and from day one Mr Armstrong showed very little toward his Tour, Giro, Vuelta winning team-mate who must surely have considered himself the leader of the team?. Still, maybe a bit of 'needle' does no harm. You should read what Fausto and Gino said about each other!. Nice debating with you!.
Possible Juggernaut Lineup for Lance Armstrong's Team Radio Shack in 2010 TDF:
Lance Armstrong
Levi Leipheimer
Andreas Kloden
Yaroslav Popovych
George Hincapie
Haimar Zubeldia
Sergio Paulinho (if Contador comes)
Gregory Rast
Janez Brajkovic (assuming either if not both Contador or Paulinho come with Armstong)
I'm thinking Lance will put together a team this time he knows he'll be the leader. I think he'll ask Greg Lemond, Eddie Merck, Paul Sherwin and Bob Rolls to join his team.
Possible Juggernaut Lineup for Lance Armstrong's Team Radio Shack in 2010 TDF:
Lance Armstrong
Levi Leipheimer
Andreas Kloden
Yaroslav Popovych
George Hincapie
Alberto Contador (maybe...)
Haimar Zubeldia
Sergio Paulinho (if Contador comes)
Gregory Rast
Janez Brajkovic (assuming either if not both Contador or Paulinho come with Armstong)
No, no, noooo... You got it all wrong. We've already discussed probable acquisitions and made this conclusion:
Armstrong
Landis
Heras
Hamilton
Basso
Beltran
Kloden
Leipheimer
and their star climber who has never ridden before for Lance - Rasmussen. Armstrong recognized the same dedication and values in this last rider.
Yep - another whiney, arrogant European, what have ya done for me lately, back-stabbing Ahole... He should have simply said "Thanks for pacing me Lance'.... He's not 1/3 the rider Lance ever was, nor will he ever be....
sorry about the late arrival... the only people lance paced in that race were the rest of the peloton when armstrong was trying to catch contador. as lance says, there' no "i" in team.