ASO announced the twenty teams for the 2008 Tour de France today and not surprisingly, Astana was not on the list. Coincidentally, the Tour of Georgia unveiled their start list for the late-April event and Rock Racing did not receive and invite. While I support the right of race organizers to invite whichever teams they choose, that doesn't mean I have to agree with them about their decisions. In both the aforementioned cases, I think the race organizers have erred in not inviting Astana to the Tour and Rock Racing to Georgia.
The Astana team with 2007 Tour winner Alberto Contador and third-place finisher Levi Leipheimer is clearly one of the strongest squads in the pro peloton and on the basis of strength alone deserve a slot. Keeping them out of the Tour means that all the best riders will not be on the starting line. It definitely devalues the 2008 yellow jersey. To be the best, you have to beat the best. Unfortunately, it appears that Astana's problems are probably linked to Johan Bruyneel and Lance Armstrong's seven Tour wins. It seems that ASO still feels that these two somehow pulled of all those victories in a less than honest matter.
Rock Racing was one of the most popular teams at the 2008 Amgen Tour of California. They had huge crowds at their team bus before and after each stage and their riders responded to the attention with Mario Cipollini taking third on Stage 2, Victor Hugo Pena climbing extremely well and Michael Creed aggressively going off the front on several occasions in an attempt to take a stage. However, Michael Ball tangled with race organizers over the exclusion of three riders, something which appeared to the public to be totally arbitrary. Clearly, Michael Ball marches to a different drummer, but judging by the number of fans and the demographic of those fans, his team is generating a lot of buzz about the sport of cycling.
I think to be fair and un-biased if you believe that Astana got a raw deal you also have to feel that Rock Racing was unjustly spurned. Levi and the boys should be racing in France just as Fast Freddie and his crew should be on the start line in Georgia. I still support a free market when it comes to races. Organizers should be able to invite whomever they want though they should have some published criteria so teams have some indication on what they need to do to be considered. I just hope that they can be more fair and just when it comes to team selection.
What do you all think?
Bruce
Active Expert: Bruce Hildenbrand
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MudFlower
Thanks for the article. And, I'm just curious...do you work for active.com because I thought Lance Armstrong was on the board of active.com or somehow invested in the company?
Chris
The tour organizers did the correct thing by not inviting Astana. After reading all of Walsh's stuff, it is obvious that Bruyneel is as dirty as it gets and LA is an unworthy champion in the same way Riis is....It's a shame for Levi, but he could have disassociated himself from the frauds.. I'm hoping he is not one of them.
Phil Doggett
Birrell and Medalist Sports can put what ever spin they like on it, but bottom line is that they have elected to exclude a team based only on their narrow minded old school perception of what cycling should be.
No dis-respect to the other domestic teams, but R&R would field a higher quality team even without the services of Cippolini, Hamilton, Botero and Sevilla. I can only hope this type of action back fires on Birrell and his Medalist Sports group and fans wake up and see it for what it really is.
In this day and age subscribing to the "conform or die" mentality will only further the demise of cycling.
TOG selection process stinks to high ****................
It appears Astana so enraged Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme last year that he was set on not allowing any form, new or otherwise, of the Astana team in this year's Tour. Bruyneel and his racers should have counted the cost of this fact when they signed with the Kazakhstan sponsorship consortium. I'm also not buying into this obviously marketing-related campaign to "Let Levi Ride." Trek, SRAM and the other sponsors should've counted the potential costs and risks associated with a tarnished name like Astana.
As for Rock Racing not getting into the Tour of Georgie, it's not a surprise really. Michael Ball swore at the Tour of California that he would have nothing to do with the organizers, who also manage the Georgia and Missouri races. I agree, though, that RR does pull in the crowds, but then again, so does NASCAR...
Excellent analysis as usual, Brucey.