Latest addition to the Astana pro team

[Kalidurga]

From VeloNews.com: Guess who's coming to dinner? Vino wants to rejoin Astana

Disgraced Tour de France star Alexander Vinokourov has announced plans to return to professional cycling, with the Astana team of Lance Armstrong, according to reports in Belgium on Saturday.

...

Vinokourov believes he would manage to rejoin Astana, which since his ban has undergone a management overhaul with the arrival of Johan Bruyneel, the man who helped steer Armstrong to seven straight yellow jerseys.

"I think I would be able to return to Astana, the team I launched after Liberty Seguros folded," added Vinokourov, who according to Sporza is due to speak about the doping controversy which has surrounded him.

...

On Saturday several leading newspapers in Europe carried reports about Vinokourov's return, although Bruyneel, according to Dutch paper De Telegraaf, said he is "unaware" of the Kazakh's intentions.

However, if the Kazakh owners of the team sanction Vinokourov's return - Vinokourov personally knows the Kazakh Minister of Defense Danyal Akhmetov, who is also the president of the Kazakh cycling federation - to the team, Bruyneel could be in the privileged, but frustrating position of having four star riders on his payroll.

I rooted like crazy for Vino during the 2007 Tour before finding out about his blood doping. Now, though, I gotta say I'm surprised he can even get his butt on a bike saddle with balls like that Talk about hubris!

[maillotpois]

He's up there on my list of "used to love" as well. Along with Tyler (and I am still not completely sure where I am on Tyler.)

Ever since he took off from that stage to Gap in 2003 (where Beloki crashed and Lance did some cross) and stayed away - we were there and it just made it so much more cool. He'd always been an amazing rider, but that just cemented him for me as a real hero.

Now, he just makes me sad.

[Zen]

I'm surprised he can even get his butt on a bike saddle with balls like that

[VeloVT]

All I can say is, good luck Astana trying to get into the 2009 tour. Between Vino and Lance, I would bet the ASO will not be too welcoming.

[ilima]

Pretty disgusting. The UCI never appealed his 1-year ban from the Kazahk federation. I hope they will now. He should be out for two years.

[Eden]

I attended a lecture this week given by an ethicist (Dr. Norman Frost) on performance enhancing drugs. It was very much not what I was expecting. He is actually for changing the rules so that PEDs are not banned... It doesn't change my mind at all that cheating is cheating and as long as PEDs are against the rules - no matter what the reason for the ban- it could be as arbitrary as "because I said so", then rule breakers deserve punishment (and Dr. Frost doesn't argue against this either), but it does give some interesting food for thought about why PED's are banned in sport and whether or not it is a good idea. He also particpated a debate on the topic, whose panel included Mr. Pound - former head of WADA (head of WADA at the time, I think).

The debate was aired on NPR and here is a transcript http://www.intelligencesquaredus.org...s%20011508.pdf

[Running Mommy]

He's up there on my list of "used to love" as well. Along with Tyler (and I am still not completely sure where I am on Tyler.)

I saw Tyler many times at Interbike, he looks HORRIBLE!
Now that I think about it we almost ran into each other coming around a corner. We did one of those "which way are you going " stand offs.

Sad too. I really liked Tyler...

[Possegal]

I don't think this would impact the 09 tour because even if it were true, vino would still have to serve out a 2-yr ban, which would cover the 09 tour if they made the ban retroactive to the 07 tour. There was an article about it somewhere, I'll see if I can link. But he didn't get a ban since he retired, but if he decided to come out of retirement, he'd have to serve out the ban.

[Aggie_Ama]

I saw Tyler many times at Interbike, he looks HORRIBLE!
Now that I think about it we almost ran into each other coming around a corner. We did one of those "which way are you going " stand offs.

Sad too. I really liked Tyler...

I used to like him but I think he doped and if he admitted it ala David Millar I would like him again. My husband cannot see him without commenting on his teeth. He is really bugged by the huge white smile. LOL. We saw him at the Tour of California, just a weird looking guy these days.

[maillotpois]

That's funny - my husband can't see him without commenting on how bad his skin looks!

[Beane]

That's funny - my husband can't see him without commenting on how bad his skin looks!

don't steroids tend to cause acne? and testicle shrinkage? cuz that would explain all his physical abnormalities....