Bruyneel Astana deal confirmed

Friday’s EuroFile: Bruyneel Astana deal confirmed

The Kazakh Cycling Federation formally announced Friday that former Discovery manager Johan Bruyneel will take over the helm of the troubled Astana team starting with the 2008 season.

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There was no mention of new riders, but Bruyneel is expected to bring Tour de France champion Alberto Contador and U.S. champ Levi Leipheimer. Four others from Discovery Channel – Sergio Paulinho, Benjamin Noval, Tomas Vaitkus and Janez Brajkovic – are likely to follow the Disco-Astana migration.

And with that you have the leading team for 2007… Obviously the final roster will make a difference but Contador and Leipheimer are a really solid foundation. Astana will be favored in any races they enter. Hopefully there’ll be no issues with the team getting invites to the grand tours with all the problems they had this year.

Overall I’m happy with the news. I’m psyched to see Bruyneel continue on in the sport, I’m happy that Levi will be on another really strong team and I love the idea of Bruyneel continuing his tutelage of Contador.