As predicted Alberto Contador’s win at the Vuelta on Sunday is already proving complicated for his team Astana. Speaking to the Spanish newspaper AS Contador dropped a strong hint that he would quit the Astana team if it hires Lance Armstrong, who has announced he is coming out of retirement to seek a record eighth Tour de France title. Armstrong has strong links with the current Astana management. Contador was asked by the sports newspaper AS how he would feel if the Armstrong joins Astana. "It would be quite complicated. I think I’ve earned the right to be the leader of a team without having to fight for it," he said in the interview published on Tuesday. "And with Armstrong, there could be difficult situations in which the team would put him first and that would harm me." Armstrong, now 37, shocked the world of cycling earlier this month by confirming that he was planning an audacious comeback with a view to winning a record eighth Tour de France next summer. Astana boss Joahn Bruyneel, who managed Armstrong as director of the US Postal and Discovery Channel teams, said recently he would "not allow" the American to join another team. Contador who has now won three grand tours in 14 months – a feat which guarantees him legend status now says he may quit the Kazakh-backed, Luxembourg-based team if Armstrong signs on, the American will announce his plans at a press conference on Thursday. "I will base my decision on what he says," the Spaniard told AS. "I intend to stay because I am under contract until 2010, but I have received a good many offers from other teams. "Bruyneel believes I can deliver results, but it can’t be denied that he made his name because of his ties to Armstrong." Contador won the Tour of Spain on Sunday to add his victories in the 2007 Tour de France winner and this year’s Giro d’Italia. He is now only the fifth rider in history, and the first ever Spaniard, to win all three of cycling’s three-week Tours. A feat that in most situations would guarantee him an unassailable position in most teams, but Armstrong is different. Contador’s comments to AS are very different from those he made immediately after Armstrong’s announcement and suggest his Vuelta win has emboldened him into letting his true feelings on the Armstrong situation be known. Back on 10 September when asked about Armstrong’s return he said: "I would welcome (Armstrong) into the team with open arms because a cyclist like him would fit in anywhere," "I have always had the highest regard for him and would be delighted to be in the same team as him."
Update: Contador may quit if Armstrong joins Astana- Armstrong to join Astana
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Would he have performed better on his normal bike?
the National Bus and Rail Union told the Oireachtas (Irish Parliament) the following month, saying the requirements (making the cyclist scum wear helmets and HiViz) would, “make the roads a safer place, as it would make potential hazards easier to spot.” Nothing to do with driver behaviour then? Stagecoach is even putting intimidating threats against cyclists on the side of the buses now! ttps://upride.cc/incident/px60beo_stagecoach41-closepass/
.......the government was focused on the “enormity of the e-scooter problem” Just wait until they find out how absolutely effing gigantic the car problem is. The whole thing is just motornormativity at government level, and while Ciarán Cannon talks sense, Seán Canney is fecking eejit.
40% of fatal road incidents (70 deaths p.a.) in Ireland involve excess alcohol. Pass a law mandating compulsory alcohol interlocks for all motor vehicles and see what that does for road safety first.
@mitsky I didn't say it was applicable in this case or that I thought it should be, I was simply answering your question as to whether anyone had ever shot someone and been charged with anything other than murder or attempted murder, to which the answer is yes.
@perce The new troll, my friend, is solely piss and wind, the new troll is solely piss and wind.
Very correct price for a basic, no-frills frameset. Older and wiser -after a warranty case on a '100 year' Ti frameset that lasted 5 years before a drive side chain stay weld said sayonara- I'll never again purchase a really high cost Ti frame. If the replacement -3999 Euro at retail but I paid 800, which is what it took for them to +- honour the warranty- fails, I'm done. Firstly because they do fail. Titanium is very finicky where welding conditions are concerned and good luck with that warranty, better read the wording very carefully. Secondly, often the price is justified with 'it's a frame for life'. Errrr....yes, unless you decide you want something different after 5 years, it breaks or technology evolves to a point where your frameset becomes aa anachronism and after 10 years you can start hunting for spares(UDH and disc brakes, anyone?). Third: I'm getting a bit tired reading about these so-called 'magical' properties of Ti. The only magical thing about it is the corrosion resistance. All that absorbing of vibrations etc is mainly function of frame design/geometry. If you want vibration damping: larger tires, lower pressure, done.
True,but I can't count thé number of times I've seen him on TV as an invited expert for comments since
"...there was enough suspicion to warrant an out-of-hours knock on the door for the Tour’s then-top two." A generic statement that sounds like a cover-your-arse mumbling. Can they be more specific? Nope. Good to see Vaughters join Lefevere to add up some controversy to the very politically correct pro peloton. In the late 1990s and early noughties, when cycling was becoming a global phenomenom, officials, race organisers and team managers turned a blind eye on doping. Nobody wanted to slay the goose with golden eggs.
Am I missing something. Pogacar would be firm favourite no matter what you did unless you made it a very flat edition which no one would want. Outside of Pogacar its all up for grabs. You can't build a good multi-week race with Pogacar in the form he is in. Take Pogacar out and this would be fine.