Robert Chung <
[email protected]> wrote:
> Well, I very well may be a candyass but in this case I wasn't making a prediction, I was trying to
> set the over-under line.
> The problem is that as a Top Ten club, Coast gets an automatic bid and LeBlanc doesn't have
> discretion over that (as he did over Saeco last year). The only way he can wriggle out of this
> morass is if the UCI de-certifies Coast, and I'm guessing he's lobbying for that right now.
> Anyway, since you think LeBlanc (and Verbruggen) will figure out a way to keep Coast out, which
> also-ran French team do you think will make it in? No candyassing.
Heinder and Jean-Marie have much in common in this case. Neither needs this sort of a distraction
and both can make up rules on the spot. So I don't see Top Ten status as that big of a deal.
Coast has everything riding on Jan. Even in his injured state, the list of potential challengers
is very short. Once he leaves Coast goes in the toilet and Hein and Jean-Marie will pull the
handle together.
I hadn't really put much thought about which undeserving French team would get in as a result, I was
just going on history. There are six TT1 French teams, three are already in: Cofidis, CA, and FdJ.
That leaves AG2R, B la B, and Jean Delatour on the outside looking in with four wildcards yet to be
named. And you would have to think that one of those wildcards will go to Domina Vacanze.
The problem with identifying which team is replacing Coast is that Jean-Marie may not play along and
identify them if he boots Coast and names the remaining wildcards which now number five. So I will
predict that all six TT1 French teams are in and if one of them is identified as the successor to
Coast it will be the atrocious Jean Delatour.
Bob Schwartz
[email protected]