Alberto Contador leaving Astana

Just read this over on the cycling.tv site

Contador to leave Astana at end of 2010
July 28, 2010 - By Associated Press

MADRID (AP) -Tour de France winner Alberto Contador will leave Astana at the end of this season after the Spanish cyclist rejected the team's offer to extend his contract.

Contador said Wednesday he will study his options before deciding which team to ride for next season.

``Alberto Contador has rejected the Astana team's ultimatum, which had asked for an answer on its renewal offer on the upcoming seasons by Tuesday,'' Contador said in a statement. ``Alberto Contador will calmly study all of the possibilities on offers for the coming season, and he hasn't dismissed any of them.''

Contador did not divulge the offers he was studying.

In three seasons with the Kazakhstan-based team, Contador has won two of his three Tour titles, a Giro d'Italia and Spanish Vuelta title.

Contador arrived at Astana alongside team boss Johan Bruyneel in 2008, on the heels of his first Tour victory with the Discovery Channel team.

But Tour organizers denied Astana a place in the race that year due to doping violations. Instead, Contador became only the fifth cyclist to win all three of cycling's premier events with Giro and Vuelta triumphs - and the fastest to accomplish the feat.

Contador overcame the return of seven-time Tour champion Lance Armstrong with Astana last year to win cycling's classic event for the second time before taking his third Tour title on Sunday.

But Astana struggled to pay wages last year, and Bruyneel left the team at the end of last season alongside Armstrong.

Think he's going to Radio Shack:D

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Originally Posted by Bike Chick

Think he's going to Radio Shack:D

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BWA-HA-HA! I just spit coffee on my keyboard.

SheFly

With Lance gone, and Levi having shown that he's not really Tour GC material, they'll either need to look for a GC contender OR someone who can contend in big ways in other categories. I wonder how Bruyneel and Contador got along?

I bet there are a lot of teams thinking about whether they could carry the yellow jersey with someone with Contador's abilities leading.

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Originally Posted by Aquila

I bet there are a lot of teams thinking about whether they could carry the yellow jersey with someone with Contador's abilities leading.

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They would also need boatloads of cash. He commands a high salary.

The Schlecks have officially announced they are leaving Bjarne Riis's team for a new Luxembourg-based team. Should be interesting to see how this plays out -- a brand new team infrastructure can potentially be a liability to a grand tour contender. Will also be interesting to see who, if anyone, follows them from Saxo-Bank.

Of course this means Riis has an opening for a GC contender...

Rumor has it that he is most likely to move to Bjarne Riis' old Saxo team, whatever it may be called next year (SunGard maybe?) as the Schleck brothers have now officially announced they are leaving Saxo for the new Luxembourg team.