The organizers of the Tour de France announced Wednesday that the Astana team of defending champion Alberto Contador will not be invited to compete in the race or in any other event organized by Amaury Sport Organisation.
While I understand their position at some level (they have to take a stand against doping), banning the defending champion and the third place finisher from last year because of the sins of previous management seems like a mistake to me. I know they’re afraid of turning the race into a joke because of all the doping scandals of the past two years, but to decimate the field of top contenders like this lessens the strength of the race to a ridiculous degree. There are three potential podium finishers now out of the race- defending champ Alberto Contador, Levi Leipheimer and Andreas Kloden.
Crazy.
Hopefully the Pro Tour teams and the ASO can come to some sort of agreement to save the competitive integrity of this year’s event. I’ll still watch of course (if it’s still televised here after this that is), but without Astana (and whatever other Pro Tour teams are banned by the ASO) it just won’t be the same. At this point, if Slipstream doesn’t make it in and there’s no movement on this front, it’ll be a ghost of a Tour for me.
News Flash: Astana barred from ASO events
Edited to add some reaction to once piece of news that makes me want to say “Cadel Evans, you rule”
“The 2007 Tour runner-up Cadel Evans has already said that he does not want to start the Tour without his main rivals. ”
From: Playing with firee
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By Jay Long 2008/03/09 - 15:28
The ASO does not want another american sponsored team or an American Manager, Mr. Bruuneel,to win annother tour. ALL teams that had cyclists caught under the anti-doping policies should be banned. Treat all teams fairly.
By rob 2008/03/09 - 15:32
The problem with the ASO’s stand can be seen with High Road in the starting blocks today at Paris Nice. Whatever Astana did, the former T-Mobile/Telekom team did far worse and they’ve been allowed to race.