Velochimp: Astrochimp on Cycling

(AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)
Levi Leipheimer used his Giro Training camp form to get the top spot for the Dauphine Libere prologue. The American was riding some good form, while others such as Alejandro Valverde and Cadel Evans were using this race as the tune up for the Tour de France. The Dauphine is a good race [...]

It’s born. The new site letalbertoride.com is live today after reading a couple of blog posts from Bike Snob NYC, Interbike Times and Cyclelicio.us. Levi gets a nice site and a whole campaign to get him to ride the Tour de France, but Alberto Contador is the defending champ, and he gets a poorly [...]

The banning of the Astana Cycling Team became official today as the A.S.O (Amaury Sports Organization) officially rebuked the team from participating in all A.S.O sponsored events. This comes after the Giro D’Italia snubbed the Kazak-sponsored team from participating in Italy in May. The snub comes despite a complete overhaul of the team structure from [...]

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Levi is rumored to be switching to Astana along with Johan Bruyneel and defending Tour champion Alberto Contador. Meanwhile he is living it up by eating “blue cheese crusted tenderloin of beef and chocolate mousse cake” in Utah.
Levi is asked about doping particularly the Landis case:
“Yep, that’s pretty much all [...]

Andriy Kashechkin tested positive for homologous blood doping in an out of competition test while training in Turkey. The Kazak racer’s positive test is the latest in a series of devastating blows to the Astana team that comes after doping related issues with Mattaus Kessler, Eddie Mazzoleni and Vonkourov. The double positive for blood doping [...]

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Christophe Moraeu can be added to the list of contenders that are not in a place to contend. Team Astana struck like a cobra in the crosswinds of the transitional stage to help put Moreau out of contention in the Tour de France. Maybe Astana was exacting a bit of revenge or just [...]

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Michael Rasmussen took the initiative in what is seen as an annual break to gain the Polka Dot climbers jersey. The difference this year is that he was also able to snatch the Yellow Jersey. The wiry Dane dominated an early breakaway with Michael Rogers. It looked like Rogers would take over the [...]

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Just when German cycling looked to be cooked along comes a new sensation to light up the sport for the Bavarians. With Jorge Jascke hogging German TV, talking about how he made his small fortune by doping while lots of great actions goes by unnoticed. The German government wants to remove funding for [...]

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The Tour de France is about battles large and small. The biggest battle is for the Yellow Jersey. Then there are stage wins, then battles for other jerseys. Each of these plays out in front of the TV everyday and provides for some drama in it s own way. Today Bradley Wiggins the [...]

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The Astana team took a really big blow on Stage 5 to Autun. It is a day they will want to forget and quickly. Andreas Kloden the highest placed GC man looks to have broken his coccyx along with contusion to his hip and knee. In 2003 Kloden had a similar injury and [...]