Comments on: Alberto’s Power Play?

By: Jeff

Jeff — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:54:21 +0000

Ludwig,
BTW, no disagreement from me with your post on this thread. Well said.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:50:07 +0000

Ludwig,

You’re back. Welcome! I just wanted to let you know you’ve become a minor celebrity in small circles. A few friends of mine who were fond of playing “Hi Bob” once upon a time (In “High Bob” you drank beer every time someone said “Hi Bob” on the old Bob Newhart Show) started a new drinking game in which you are the focus.

When they feel a need to get their party on, they just check out your posts at DPF and drink every time one of your posts contain the word “omerta”. They like to drink, so keep up the good work and keep prattling on about the mythical omerta. But I’m not going to play their game. I simply can’t drink that much anymore.

By: Jean C

Jean C — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:12:24 +0000

Richard,

I am a bit late but don’t worry for Lance, he knows that I know, he knows that it’s too late to convince us that he were clean. Now if he wanted to convince us that he wwas clean on the next TDF he would have realized his personal anti-doping progran with Catlin. He had too much suspicion to be allowed to make errors.
Unfortunaletly for him Kohl, Jaschke, Sinkewitz,… have confirmed what we already know since 1999, extremely difficult to beat blood doped riders.
With power average similar to 2006 Basso on last GIRO, difficult to believe in more cleaness that year but Giro and TDF could be different especially with AFLD.

About Gusev, with a bad apple it’s difficult to win the case, so the best which can be done is to select the less worst choice.
Maybe, to announce that Gusev was putting under more tests would have been the best solution, a positive WADA case would not have more destroyed their reputation that what happened.

By: Rant

Rant — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:24:28 +0000

ludwig,

That sounds like pretty reasonable summary. I think that if the Astana sponsors hadn’t required a Kazakh rider be at the Tour, that Horner would have been there. Overall, it looks to be a pretty powerful group they’ve assembled. We’ll see how well it plays out starting on Saturday.

By: ludwig

ludwig — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:19:15 +0000

To be fair to Bruyneel, Paulinho has a hefty palamares and he proved his worth as a domestique in Vino’s Vuelta victory a few years back. Also Noval, a perennial Tour selectee and friend of Contador was left off the squad.

Based purely on palmares Horner should have gotten in ahead of Murayev, but Astana is ponying up the cash. But outside Murayev/Horner this is probably the strongest team Astana could send.

By: Rant

Rant — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:20:34 +0000

Jeff,
To hear Chris Horner tell it, your account pretty much jives with his. The only exceptions are that Horner's version is that Zubeldia was an early pick (not specified by Contador), and that the final spot on the team boiled down to either Paulino or Horner. Paulinho, being Contador's request, got the nod.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 02:25:28 +0000

Alberto Contador, Lance Armstrong, Andreas Klöden, and Levi Leipheimer were nearly automatic picks.

Yaroslav Popovych was an early pick, announced prior to the final selection.

Sergio Paulinho and Haimar Zubeldia were likely AC pics. Paulinho was in the final selection. I don’t recall about Zubeldia.

Dmitriy Muravyev is a good rider and satisfies the sponsor’s wishes.

That leaves Gregory Rast, who was one of the riders named in final selection, vs. Horner. Rast will be expected to do a lot of towing and fetching, especially on the flat/rolling terrain. Rast is probably a better pick for that job, as it would waste some of Horner’s talents – being able to go on the big climbs, a position which looks well covered, on paper, already.

By: Rant

Rant — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 01:44:36 +0000

It seems to me that the politics involved in Horner’s being left off the Tour squad had to do with the sponsor saying, “Hey, we’re paying a boatload of money here. We want a Kazakh rider on the squad.” Contador, being the designated leader, may have had some influence on some of the selections, too. But in looking at the squad, it doesn’t appear that Contador had a hand in more than a two or three selections, if that.

What will be interesting to see is whether there will be any pressure on Astana to make room for a certain Kazakh contender who comes off of a doping suspension on July 24th or thereabouts. When the team originally became Astana, it was built around Vinokourov. Might be that some of those sponsors would like to see Vino in the blue and yellow kit, racing for the “home team.” Then again, if the team becomes Livestrong-Nike next year, that pressure would be off.

By: R Wharton

R Wharton — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:11:01 +0000

Jeff,
I’ll agree with that synopsis. I think a lot of other people are making mountains out of molehills. I still would’ve wanted Horner, but I think when the pedals start rotating, the antagonism and ambiguity will fall away. But the pressure is now on Contador to “Domo Up”, and dictate the terms with his legs and lungs and heart. Should he trip up, however, you’ll see any one of the 3 other supporting actors step up, if it’s not too late.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 15:39:21 +0000

In this case, power = $ (or $=Power). Astana belatedly paid up. They require someone from Kaz to be on the team. Horner lost out based upon the combination of the sponsor requiring a native rider and the team leader’s (AC’s) wishes. Couple that with the possibility/likelyhood LA will start his own team, and there you have it.

The power struggle thing also assumes there will be GL/BH style infighting. That assumes a lot and I’m not convinced it will happen (it might or might not), but it makes for popular pre-Tour theatre.