Leipheimer to Astana

weyayeman

Theres talk of Bruyneel taking Leipheimer and Contador to Astana

iainf72

Booo, I like Levi n'all.

Titanium

The biggest mistake going down. A weird sponsor, positive tests, lies, sacked riders and questionable backroom staff: everything that is bad in pro cycling is embodied by pro cycling. Now it's going to be run by Bruyneel?

LangerDan

Bruyneel really knows how to press all the "phuk you" buttons.

I wonder if he does panto - he'd make a great villain, capturing all the virgin princesses and taking them to his Kazakh lair.

"Look out Cadel, he's behind you!"

Titanium

This is real, not Vaudeville or Wacky Races. Sadly people involved in our sport don't seem to care. So long as the Kazakhs front the cash to pay the UCI for a team licence, all seems well.

iainf72

Titanium wrote:

This is real, not Vaudeville or Wacky Races. Sadly people involved in our sport don't seem to care. So long as the Kazakhs front the cash to pay the UCI for a team licence, all seems well.

While I agree, Astana are not alone in those crimes. Possibly the wierdest sponsor though.

Titanium

The sponsor is part of the problem. On a rumor, Liberty Mutual dumped Manolo Saiz and ran away. In contrast Astana is in denial, backroom staff unchanged and it seems they're hiring the Hooded Claw.

bipedal

if true he's a dumbass

LangerDan

bipedal wrote:

if true he's a dumbass

He may be amoral, grasping and two-faced (allegedly) but he's certainly not a dumbass. In twelve months time, he'll have won yet another TdF - with Vino this time - and will need to use the team car to haul away the pile of cash he'll get.

bipedal

LangerDan wrote:

bipedal wrote:

if true he's a dumbass

He may be amoral, grasping and two-faced (allegedly) but he's certainly not a dumbass. In twelve months time, he'll have won yet another TdF - with Vino this time - and will need to use the team car to haul away the pile of cash he'll get.

aye... you're right

jimmythecuckoo

What's the date?

That can't be true.

weyayeman

Sorry should have put the link up.

Leipheimer following Bruyneel to Astana?

According to Spanish website sport.es, American Levi Leipheimer will swap his Discovery Channel jersey for that of Team Astana in 2008, after the American squad disbands at the end of this season. Rumours of Discovery's team manager Johan Bruyneel being courted by the Kazakhstan Cycling Federation (which manages the Astana team) have been rife in recent weeks, with the Belgian confirming to Cyclingnews that he has been contacted regarding a position.

Quizzed at the recent Tour of Missouri, Bruyneel refused to comment on his future plans, preferring to concentrate on Discovery's last race on American soil. However, Nikolai Proskurin, vice president of the Kazakhstan Cycling Federation recently told Kazakh magazine Our Sport that current Astana manager Marc Biver would not be with the team next year, potentially paving the way for Bruyneel. "It is 150 percent certain, that [Biver] won't work for us in 2008," said Proskurin. "We have had good discussions with Johan Bruyneel. We want him as Biver's successor. Johan enjoys a good reputation in cycling."

Aside from Leipheimer, there have also been suggestions that Bruyneel would bring to Astana several Discovery Channel riders, among them Tour de France winner Alberto Contador, Tomas Vaitkus and Sergio Paulinho



hope this works

DaveyL

LangerDan wrote:

bipedal wrote:

if true he's a dumbass

He may be amoral, grasping and two-faced (allegedly) but he's certainly not a dumbass. In twelve months time, he'll have won yet another TdF - with Vino this time - and will need to use the team car to haul away the pile of cash he'll get.

There is the small issue of Vino's positive test to iron out before that will happen. Even the arrival of Bruyneel won't make that go away!

Brian B

Is it not just the case that these guy's will be out of a job soon and with so many sponsors pulling out, riders and management will have to take what is on offer. I know if I had no job I would take what I could get for myself not for what some others felt were good for me.

I am not a particular fan of Discovery or US Postal before but I do not think that they, Bruyneel or Astana are any worse than any of the rest of the pro teams. Giving the race/test results and interviews of late it is only the hardcore French riders that are probably drug free.

jimmythecuckoo

I would love to think like that, but Johan's record in Tour's would suggest that he has a "winning formula" that he has applied to Lance and Alberto.

Call me a cynic but him going to Astana would be a match made in heaven and I can't believe he can't see that fans are so anti his continued involvement in the sport.

Call Riis a lot of names if you will, but he has eventually come clean about what we all know was going on in the 90's and for that part I admire him.

LangerDan

DaveyL wrote:

LangerDan wrote:

bipedal wrote:

if true he's a dumbass

He may be amoral, grasping and two-faced (allegedly) but he's certainly not a dumbass. In twelve months time, he'll have won yet another TdF - with Vino this time - and will need to use the team car to haul away the pile of cash he'll get.

There is the small issue of Vino's positive test to iron out before that will happen. Even the arrival of Bruyneel won't make that go away!

You'd be surprised - as the president of the Kazakh sysling federation is also the minister for defense (IIRC), he'll probably threaten the UCI with a pre-emptive nuclear strike on Aigle if the charges aren't dropped!

drenkrom

If Leipheimer can only get a ride at Astana, he can hardly turn it down, can he? He is a professional, after all. If you're a coder looking for a job and only have an opening at Microsoft, are you going to turn it down and starve just because they are the Monopolistic Empire of Evil(TM)? We should not judge riders because of the reputation of the team they will be going to. Just look at Millar's experience at SDV and the rumors circulating before the Tour (and his oh-so-unconvincing rebuttal).

Besides, for a rider that got a complete rejuvenation and one of his best seasons ever under Bruyneel's "tutelage", going to Astana is hardly the first dodgy move.