TdF Sans ASTANA

[NJBikeGal]

Well...it looks like some are paying for the mistakes of others (http://www.velonews.com/article/72000). I wonder if this will result in any major reactions from other teams? Will we see others walk away from the start line until the "best of the best" are there to compete for the top international title?

[SheFly]

Sad news. Wonder how Levi, Contador and Horner feel about their decision to move to Astana this season now...

SheFly

[gnat23]

Ugh, this sucks! I keep feeling like my favorites are kept out/getting kicked out of le Tour for reasons of all or no sort. If this keeps up, maybe they'll get so desperate for clean-and-drama-free teams that we'll start seeing women up there pedaling through the alps...

Hrm. Now that I think about it, maybe we should start training at altitude, ladies.

-- gnat!

[Running Mommy]

Sigh.... This just STINKS! I wonder how many other teams are going to be out? And do you think that slipstream will get in on a wild card or waiver, or whatever they call it? That would be my only other reason why I would watch the (not so) "grand" tours now.... :cool:
In one sense I can understand why they would want to pull the plug if the old mgmt had stayed in place. But this is almost a completely new team.
Will be interesting to see how many people watch- or DONT watch- the tours this year....

[VeloVT]

It's not like doping in the 2007 tour started and stopped with Astana. This seems a little arbitrary.

Too bad because Levi's getting old. I really like Levi.

[Eden]

I think its pretty crazy.... I think they need to stop with all of the fussing around. If you get caught with a positive you're out, but all this guilt by association (or you must be guilty if you can win a race....) has got to go. It's a real shame that they are not going to let Contadore defend his title. Many on the team weren't even on Astana last year and I think even much of the management has changed. I think they are unfortunately now punishing the sponsors, which will just drive companies away from wanting to sponsor teams.

[7rider]

Doping controls mean nothing.
This is arbitrary and capricious and I'd love to see a team (and fan) sit-out to protest it. Or something. Sigh.

[rij73]

This is absurd... I feel especially bad for Levi.

[DirtDiva]

I have to say, I'm not completely surprised. Astana and Vinokourov were the ones being labelled as the favourites and thus were amongst the few the casual viewing public would have had heard of. The ASO wants to be seen to be doing everything they can to eliminate doping, so they exclude a team that had not only a very high profile member (whose see-sawing results made a lot more sense after he had tested positive for blood doping) completely caught up in it all, but one of his key supporters in the race (Kashechkin) testing positive for the same abuse shortly after the Tour finished. What will be completely unfair is if Confidis gets to race, despite also having a team member (Moreni) test positive for banned substances and also being forced to withdraw from the 2007 tour.

It is highly unfortunate for Contodor, etc. that they will not likely be present for the 2008 edition, but I did wonder at the time just how much money Astana must be offering for them all to sign up with a team that had been caught up in so much controversy; surely any team with a space in their roster would have considered adding any of those ex-Discovery riders, whether or not they could afford to make an offer.

[Running Mommy]

what about the team the "flying chicken" rasmussen was riding for last year? Are THEY in?? It was rabobank right??
That was an even bigger mess! Didn't Astana's exit happen before the tour started?? I'm trying to remember back to that debacle last year.

[Susan126]

I'm just sick of it all. When will it end? I doubt I will even watch the tour this July. In past years I would get up every morning make my coffee and then watch the tour. It would replay from 8 AM - 10 AM or so here on the west coast of the US. It was like a ritual. I truly was entertained with it all. I loved it! Also, I agree with Eden . . . I too think they need to stop with all this fussing around. Just stop and RIDE! For crying out loud.

[DirtDiva]

Astana had to withdraw partway through the TdF.

Chickenman was fired by his team for not keeping them informed of his whereabouts and missing out-of-competition testing, rather than kicked out for returning a positive test, therefore the team was not forced to withdraw.