View From The Sunflowers: Armstrong, Contador one big happy family again?

October 18, 9:32 PMCycling ExaminerJames Raia

Previous Next

3 comments Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Cycling Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Alberto Contador of Spain, who won the 2007 Tour de France and the Tour of Italy and Tour of Spain in 2008 has confirmed he'll remain with his current team, Astana, for the 2009 season.

Contador, generally considered cycling's best stage racer, had hinted he'd leave the team if he didn’t have a guarantee he’d been the team’s Tour de France leader next year.

That status seemed in question when Lance Armstrong recently announced his comeback and his intention to vie for an eighth Tour de France title.

Now, Armstrong is hedging, with a preference he says to compete in and focus on the centennial edition of the Tour of Italy, beginning May 9.

Contador’s announcement now makes sense. And here’s the potential scenario Johan Bruyneel, the Astana director, could have laid out:

“OK, fellas, here’s what we’re going to go. Let’s give the Giro to Lance. It’s the 100th anniversary and let’s not forget the Tour of Italy invited us last year after the Tour de France snubbed us. Lance can get a lot exposure for his cancer foundation. And he can get the event a lot of exposure as a way of saying thanks to Angelo Zomegnan (the event’s boss) for having us at the race this year.”

“And then we’ll have Alberto go back to defend his Tour de France title from '07. We've got the team. We'll figure out all the players later. We've got Levi Leipheimer in there and Chris Horner can be in the mix one more year. And there's Andreas Kloden and maybe even Alexandre Vinokourov, who knows? Hey, we’ve won all the Tours already when the team wasn't as strong as it  will be next year. What do you say we do it all over again?”