By Paul Sherwen
February 15, 2008

In a war there are always casualties and sadly sometimes the good guys get caught in the crossfire. In our sport at the moment there are a few big battles being fought out in the open and under the media spot light.

One is the UCI (international cycling union) versus ASO (organizers of the Tour de France, Paris Roubaix etc) and the other Grand Tours, which has been on going for some time. I wonder if that battle is not lurking in the background of the decision to keep the Tour de France defending champion Alberto Contador's Team Astana out of the Tour and all of ASO's associated events. (Continue Reading)


Tour de France vs. Astana
By Bob Roll
February 15, 2008

Astana is the capitol city of Kazakhstan. Astana is also a professional cycling team with some of the world’s best racers, including the defending Tour de France champion, Alberto Contador. Contador, however, did not race for Astana at last year's Tour. If he had, Contador would not have won the race. In fact, he would have been kicked out of the Tour because Team Astana was kicked out of the race.  Astana was booted out of the Tour after its star rider, Alexander Vinokourov, tested positive with someone else’s blood in his system. 

This winter, Astana completely revamped the structure of its team. Of course, Vinokourov was fired, but so was the manager and all the coaches. They were replaced by the man who guided Contador to his Tour win: Johan Bruyneel.  If Astana believed that having Bruyneel at the helm would mean that all had been forgiven, they were mistaken. (Continue Reading)