Tour de France teams announced

Jeff Jones

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/t ... -out-15275

No Astana, but Slipstream gets an invite.

redddraggon

Predictable.....

I don't think I'll miss Astana anyway.

andrewgturnbull

So who gets the #1 dossard?

Titanium

Good.

I don't think this is the final cut. It is possible that a few teams get in trouble over the next few months. Bad news and ASO will drop them.

andy_wrx

ASO ruled in February that reigning Tour de France champion Alberto Contador and his Astana team would be barred from competing in this year's race as a result of doping scandals over the past two years.

Gotta be picky Jeff, ASO have said that Contador is not banned, Astana are banned but that Contador would be welcome if he were to ride for another team.

Slipstream, Barloworld and Agritubel in isn't much of a surprise.

afx237vi

Shame Skil missed the cut. Clement L'Hotellerie was impressive in P-N, and you know how the French love a plucky loser....

dave_1

I am very pleased Slipstream got rewarded with a place. I believe in that team. Will this TDF be scandal free?

iainf72

The UCI should hand back the Astana Pro Tour license and then say "thanks for obeying the rules by inviting all the PT teams ASO"

:P

Moomaloid

Go on the Barlo!

dave_1

i also noticed that Slipstream have been running their own test for signs of HGH use too...explains it on their website, but they seem to have some means of detecting it. How many won't use l HGH this July?

DaveyL

From what I read on the WADA website (I know, I know...) the test for HGH exists and is sound, but the antibodies required for the test need to be produced on a large scale for widespread testing to be able to take place and that seems to be the bottleneck at the moment:

http://www.wada-ama.org/rtecontent/docu ... hGH_En.pdf

Noodley

Dave_1 wrote:

Will this TDF be scandal free?

Go ask William Hill for odds on that one

andrewgturnbull

andy_wrx wrote:

ASO ruled in February that reigning Tour de France champion Alberto Contador and his Astana team would be barred from competing in this year's race as a result of doping scandals over the past two years.

Gotta be picky Jeff, ASO have said that Contador is not banned, Astana are banned but that Contador would be welcome if he were to ride for another team.

Slipstream, Barloworld and Agritubel in isn't much of a surprise.

Hi there.

If Contador doesn't have an exit clause in his Astana contract that allows him to leave if they don't ride the tour, then he needs to shoot his lawyer. Surely at the point he signed for Astana he had a whole lotta options and could have named his price and terms as the current tour winner?

Cheers, Andy

Arkibal

andrewgturnbull wrote:

andy_wrx wrote:

ASO ruled in February that reigning Tour de France champion Alberto Contador and his Astana team would be barred from competing in this year's race as a result of doping scandals over the past two years.

Gotta be picky Jeff, ASO have said that Contador is not banned, Astana are banned but that Contador would be welcome if he were to ride for another team.

Slipstream, Barloworld and Agritubel in isn't much of a surprise.

Hi there.

If Contador doesn't have an exit clause in his Astana contract that allows him to leave if they don't ride the tour, then he needs to shoot his lawyer. Surely at the point he signed for Astana he had a whole lotta options and could have named his price and terms as the current tour winner?

Cheers, Andy

Hello, first post here..
I'm sure Alberto has that clause, but why would he leave his teammembers that helped him last year? What other team could he possibly go to?

I disagree with ASO's decision, especially when they invited Rabo which caused the biggest damage last year at the Tour.
Sorry for the rough English, hope you understand what I mean.

andy_wrx

Did Rabo cause more damage than Astana ?

Measuring it in terms of anti-cycling column inches in the general press and coverage on the telly during the Tour, I'm not sure.

Rabo (with whatever arm-twisting and threatening happened behind the scenes, I agree) pulled Rasmussen, whereas Astana were essentially chucked-out with lots of continued denials and ludicrous excuses from Vino and the Khazakh sponsors.

Certainly both these teams did more than Cofidis, a team which went without a murmur after Moreni's +ve.

Telekom (sorry, T-mobile, I'm showing my age !) caused German TV to drop the Tour, but didn't cause too many ripples in the UK and I guess other countries.

andrewgturnbull

Arkibal wrote:

Hello, first post here..
I'm sure Alberto has that clause, but why would he leave his teammembers that helped him last year?

Fame, fortune - take your pick.

Arkibal wrote:

What other team could he possibly go to?

Any team without a genuine tour contender, especially a Spanish one.

Cheers, Andy

afx237vi

Noodley wrote:

Dave_1 wrote:

Will this TDF be scandal free?

Go ask William Hill for odds on that one

Two words - "Valv Piti" :shock:

Surely it's his turn this year.

ms_tree

Jeff Jones wrote:

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/tour-de-france-teams-named-astana-out-15275

No Astana, but Slipstream gets an invite.

ASO have a long memory. They don't want another 7 years of predicability with one team riding on the front for days, dominating the race and not allowing anyone else to have a go. They want an unpredictable race that keeps the watcher coming back for more.

'Faith is believing in something when common sense tells you not to'.