This is totally unbelievable. What is it with these people that makes them continue to do this shit? I do not understand what the motivation is to still dope after all that has happened. From the Festina affair to Floyd Landis and Ivan Basso. These guys have thick heads and do not really comprehend what is truly at stake. They are pretty luck to ride a fucking bike for a living and earn some extra wages instead of taking up a regular job in some cubicle. So when the sport that allows you to do all of this is teetering on the brink of collapse because of doping what do you do?

It is totally unbelievable, especially now that the Yellow Jersey in the Tour de France is under suspicion. The sport cannot catch a break. T-Mobile is deciding whether or not to continue in the sport as are several other sponsors. Discovery Channel cannot find a replacement to continue the team, yet numb fuckheads like Vino still need the extra juice to get across the finish line first.

Its just unbelievable…

Velonews info

Cyclingnews

The Pyrenees stages of the Tour have whittled down the list of contenders for the 2007 Tour de France to two names. Michael Rasmussen is still in Yellow but has a relentless Contador ready to pounce into the lead. After yesterday’s well played out win on Plateau de Beille, Contador and Discovery Channel have a leader they feel could win the Tour de France. Contador has launched several blistering attacks to take out almost every rival except for Rasmussen.

Six blistering attacks on the Col de Peyresourde were matched barely by a tough to shake Rasmussen. Contador’s attacks were so viscous that leading motorcycles could not get out of the way. One attack was neutralized since they caught up to remnants of the earlier breakaway. One could see that Contador was pulling out attack after attack to try and shake the Dane who was hanging back on. By the top of the Peyresourde Contador and Rasmussen caught up to a duo that contained Discovery Channel teammate George Hincapie and an Astana racer. Hincapie worked for Contador on the descent pushing the groups advantage and trying to keep Rasmussen on edge. On the final run in to the finish Contador tried more attacks, but was not able to shave any more time.

The steady stream of attacks did put the pressure on Rasmussen who was able to hang on but just barely.

“I was really on the verge of giving up,” Rasmussen said. “I think he got an advantage of getting behind [the slipstream of] a motor bike, but still, he probably has the best acceleration of anybody in the peloton. I’m happy I managed to stay with him.”
–via velonews.com

Contador will not give up, after a rest day tomorrow comes one more mountain stage in the Pyrennes.

“I attacked Rasmussen to try to challenge him,” said Contador. “I saw that he was a little worse than yesterday, but he was able to follow me. On Wednesday, I am going to play for it all. Second place doesn’t matter. I am going to risk all to win. If I end up in sixth, it doesn’t matter.”
–via velonews.com

After the recent doping revelations about Rasmussen many are weary of a new Tour winner with doping issues. I for one would rather not see Rasmussen win and then get dogged by constant dopign allegations. It would be too much for the sport to take especially since the Landis verdict has yet to be revealed.

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Meanwhile, the mercurial Alexandre Vinokourov did his best phoenix imitation by rising up from the ashes of a 29 minute loss on Sunday to take the win today. Vino may have overextended himself or succumbed to pressure, but whatever it is, the 29 minute loss helped him get into a large breakaway group. Vino shattered the break with a fearsome pace and was by himself at the finish. Two stage wins in three days is a good consolation prize for the man who was planning on wearing Yellow into Paris.

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 happened to take advantage of an opportunity to gain back time for Vino. Whichever, any GC contender has to be on alert at all times. Resting can only be done when you get back to the hotel.

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These transitional stages from the Alps to Pyrennes are dangerous. Overal GC contenders cannot rest at all times because you never know what will happen. Most everyone chilled out yesterday as a large break consisting of the indefatigable Jens Voight came in for the win. The win by 36 year old Cedric Vassuer capped off a stage where everyone more or less was in recovery mode following the Alps. Today was a different story.

The first hour of racing covered 50km as break after break went and was reeled back in. The bunch was nervous with breaks trying for glory and crosswinds. Crosswinds are a bitch. You get wind no matter where you are, and can only draft the person in front of you by riding on one side or another. In a pro peloton crosswinds can quickly split up the group and form echelons all over the place. Basically tiny groups of guys riding in diagonal line formation split by just a few seconds.

Moreau was involved in a crash and found himself flounder off the back of the peloton getting medical assistance. His badly ripped up shorts reminiscent of Vinos crash a week ago. Just as Vino was caught out as the bunch roared to the finish line, Moreau suffered a similar fate.

Moreau’s reaction was even tempered with a touch of bitterness.

“What Vino did was not unfair,” conceded Moreau. “Settling scores is part of the sport. When I attacked [in the Alps] he was not well. Today I was the one who was not that well. But the Tour is far from finished. It could have been even worse. I was well-supported by my team, because at one moment I was near a breaking point.

“In the Tour, you have to get over these sort of days, even if it isn’t easy. Perhaps something good may come out of the bad. Perhaps now I will have more chances of an opening, more room to move. It’s a black day that I will have to forget.”

–velonews.com

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In the final run to the finish Vino launched a mini attack to show he is feeling like his old self again. Then a crash knocked out some of the big sprinteres still left in the group leaving a smaller group to contend for the stage win. Robbie Hunter capitalized on all of this and won ahead of a surprising Cancellara and an improving Fischer.

Vino was a thorn in Lance’s side attacking at the craziest moments such as the descent into Gap that resulted in Joseba Beloki’s eventual career ending crash.

Alexandre Vinokourov’s charge for the Mailliot Jaune could be a lost cause for 2007. Vino could not hold the pace of the top contenders and finds himself several minutes behind. Vino has been battling injuries and the pain showed today as he was riding with the group of second flight contenders and came in over 2 minutes behind current Yellow Jersey Michael Rasmussen. The pain and devastation showed as Vino burst into tears realizing that the dream of winning the Tour is out of reach. Vino’s performances at the Tour have always been on extremes. In the past he would blister the field attacking at the most unexpected moments gaining time while competitors were sleeping. Remember that famous crash of Beloki and Armstrong in 2003? They were chasing Vino who was blitzing the field. Then he would follow tose performances with almost legendary time losses. Vino was not able to string together enough good days and luck to be a overall winner.

FRANCK FIFE/AFP/Getty Images

Mauricio Soler gave Barloworld some great press today. The Columbian climber from the wildcard team did not have any major wins in his palmares. Just a stage at the Tour of Columbia. His solo effort up the Galibier and into Briancon was
impressive as he held off a hard charging group that swelled with most of the major contenders for the Tour.

Soler’s Barloworld team gave the ASO plenty to be happy about in the Tour so far. They’ve had several racers in breaks during the first week and now a stage win.

JOEL SAGET/AFP/Getty Images

The General Classification is getting a little clearer after the final Alp stage today. The Col de Galibier was the final climb before a few flat stages let everyone lick their wounds and take stock of their position in the Tour. The next major challenge for the GC men won’t come until Saturday’s Time Trial at Albi. That stage will be a critical test for Michael Rasmussen who has changed from pursuing the Polka Dot Jersey to going for the Yellow. Rasmussen defended his position well while wearing the Yellow. For a racer like Ras there would be an expectation that he would attack to gain more time, but the downhill run into Briancon was enough to eliminate any advantage that Ras could get by attacking the group going up the Galibier. It was smart to counter the attacks and stick with the group going downhill. The last week of the Tour will provide plenty of mountains for Rasmussen to still be in contention no matter how he performs in the time trial.

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Alejandro Valverde is getting more aggressive finally. He attacked Ramussen a few times going up the Galibier and forced the climbing specialist to be on the chase. Rasmussen actually looked vlnerable at times which seems odd after Monday’s stage where Rasmussen dominated the climbs. If Valverde gets more aggressive it just may pay off especially if Rasmussen and Mayo are his main adversaries going into the final week. Valverde however is riding in unknown territory since this may be the farthest he has ever raced in the Tour.

As for Discovery Channel, they cannot say that they are supporting Levi Leipheimer with a straight face. Contador looks strong and is well ahead of Levi in the overall. Levi may get a chance to improve his standings on Saturday’s time trial, but regardless of the outcome he is not treated like a team leader. Discovery sent Popovych and Contador out on attacks looking for a stage win. No Discovery/Postal racer ever went off for personally glory in the Lance days. They all worked together as a team staying by Lance’s side. Disco had guys all over the place, if Levi was truly the leader, Popovych and Contador would hold back and help pace Levi to the front group.

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 Yellow Jersey from his young teammate Linus Gerdemann. Rogers at that point was the team leader for T-Mobile and he took an early opportunity to flex his muscles and make a claim for the Yellow. But cycling is a ver unforgiving sport. Going down the Col de Roseland descent Rogers crashed with breakaway companion David Arroyo of Caisse D’Epargne. Arroyo went over the guard rail and into the trees while Rogers crashed on the road. Arroyo looked OK, but Rogers never recovered and had to retire from the race.

AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski

On a similar descent Stuart O’Grady crashed hard and had to be taken to hospital where it was determined that he had cracked ribs but no spinal damage. Robbie McEwen came in outside the time limit and was eliminated. Any remaining Aussies in the race should count their lucky stars. The elimination happened in threes so other Aussies should theoretically be OK to keep riding.

Michael Rasmussen’s grab for the Yellow comes with new determination. The Dane sees a chance to get on the podium in Paris. He is still sore about the botched Time Trial two years ago when he crashed numerous times and made a big mess of a critical TT. With well over 100km of Time Trials still to go this is a tough task, but he has a little bit of a lead over most of the TT favorites. If Ras has done any amount of work to improve his TT positioning or handling he should be much better off.

FRANCK FIFE/AFP/Getty Images

Other notable racers today included the resurgence of Iban Mayo who attacked with conviction not seen for a few years from the Tour. Christophe Moreau attacked a few times but did not get any help from Valverde. Valverde is a big favorite and he did not help Moreau try to put in time on the Kazak crew of Vinokourov, Kloden and Kashekin. This could be seen as biding time or a lost opportunity. Tomorrow is a rest day, the Kazaks are hurt, so why not test them or try to put in time while they are down? Valverde will look at today as somewhat of a missed opportunity.

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Levi Leipheimer must feel abandoned by Discovery Channel. What happened to the well oiled machine of the Lance days? They are long gone. Disco is now a group of opportunist who may pr may not be working together as a cohesive group. Hincapie was out in front all day long. Contador went with an attack, bit it did not seem as though it was to cover for Levi as much as to see how well he could do. Popovych is given freedom to do what he likes to and try to win a stage. All of these efforts were no help to Leipheimer who is still in a decent position to do well, but not much better than if he were racing at Gerolsteiner. What’s up with the Discovery Channel mechanics? Two major technicals in one day? Lance would go nuclear of anything like that happened when he was racing. Discovery Channel is just not the same team as before and they are not in support of Levi. If Levi does win it will be in spite of his team, not because they are helping him. Astana is actually supporting their three headed snake by having guys do tempo work and supporting their top guys. Discovery Channel looks like it is a free for all.

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 the World Championship in Stuttgart. All of the German’s want to kick cycling while it is down except of course the fans. German TV watchers complained about Jascke’s presence in the commentary box and are still tuning in, as well they should now that Linus Gerdemann had his coming out party today.

The young German with a baby face that looks more appropriate as a member of a boy band than a cycling team ripped up the first day in the mountains. Gerdy was able to get into a substantial breakaway group which included some heavy hitters such as Inigo Landaluze, Egoi Martinez, Fabian Wegmann and Paolo Salvodelli. This was not a group to give too much time to on the first mountain stage. Gerdemann showed surprising form in the mountains by eagarly attacking the group he was in when the roads got steeper. He was content to carry on alone and successfully held off second place Landaluze in the final 14km which were mostly downhill. Germany has a new star as Gerdemann showed panache in his win. The key now is how long will Gerdemann hold onto the Yellow Jersey? Will he be T-Mobile’s number one leader even when Mick Rogers was the team’s designated man? It will be interesting to see if Gerdemann recovers enough from today’s effort as stage 8 promises to be much tougher than today.

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Meanwhile the Cycling Mummy known as Alexandre Vinokourov and his sidekick ol’ Creaky Coccyx Kloden survived their first day in the mountains. Vino must be repeating the mantra “Pain is temporary, glory is forever” over and over in his head. Vino hung on to the select group of contenders which included pretty much anyone who is considered to be a Tour de France contender for 2007. Everyone stayed tight together giving nothing away. The group did set a tough pace that all but the non climbers could follow, but the true tests will come in the next couple of days as someone or a few folks will shake out the “contenders from the pretenders”. As for Vino and Klodi they are where they want to be minus a bunch of scrapes, fractures and bruises.

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 Londoner who “hasn’t shown much in road racing” put in a day long break that looked utterly painful. Ashame about the race radios and split times. The peloton was simply toying with Wiggins allowing him to cook in the sun as long as they absolutely needed to. The peloton was in a restful mood. This is what you get when there is no more doping, or at least not much more doping in the world of pro cycling. Speeds are slower, finishes drag out to around the noontime (6pm French time) and not a great deal of action in these transitional stages.

FRANCK FIFE/AFP/Getty Images

Wiggins was just hoping some team would simply get on with it and catch him already. After many kilometers out front the peloton finally got down to business and dueled out a nice sprint for the fans sitting at home. The action was worth the wait with Boonen going all over the road to get a clear position and winning. Boonen looked possessed as he sprinted home. He wanted his Green Jersey back and a stage win for this Tour de France before the mountain stage on Saturday.

FRANCK FIFE/AFP/Getty Images

The other big news was the struggle of Astana. The heavy favorite team from Kazakstan, very niiiiice had massive troubles yesterday on stage 5. Today’s piano pace helped the likes of Vino and Kloden cruise along and nurse their wounds.

FRANCK FIFE/AFP/Getty Images

Vino looked like a mummy wearing all of the bandages. Too bad they don’t make gauze bandages in teal. At one point Vino motioned to the camera by moving his hand across his neck. The universal symbol of death might mean that Vino’s 2007 adventure could be coming to a quick end. But then again if he can get through the next two mountain stages he may be able to buy enough time to make a match of the Tour. That is a very big IF.

Andreas Kloden meanwhile has a hairline fracture of his tailbone meaning that life is probably not too comfortable for the German at this point. On Versus Frankie Andreu noted that as the Astana team bus pulled up to the start that the mechanics brought Klodi’s and Vino’s bikes into the bus to see if they could actually sit on them. Once that was determined to be acceptable they all came out and were ready to ride. This cannot be a fun time for either Vino or Klodi to ride bikes, so all eyes will be on them to see if they actually sign in tomorrow.

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 had to abandon the race. Having a fracture on the tailbone has to be extremely painful to say the least much less tending to an injury like this when you are racing 120 miles a day and the tough stages are yet to come. Astana team manager Marc Biver adds:

“It’s impossible for Kloeden to sit up in the saddle,” Biver said. “It will be very hard for him (to continue).”

The prognosis did get better this morning as cyclingnews reports:

Andreas Klöden had slightly more luck following his crash. He was initially feared to have a tailbone fracture, the same injury that forced him out of the Tour in 2003. After some more X-rays and additional tests, however, the German is cleared to ride with ‘just’ a hairline fracture. According to sid Astana’s directeur sportif Mario Kummer reported that “it’s not as bad as initially feared.” Everybody is aware, though, that the injury is quite painful for a cyclist and it remains to be seen if Klöden will be able to finish the Tour, in which he is currently ranked second.

Either way, Kloden did injure his tailbone. Whether the pain is bearable enough to continue will be the big question.

/AFP/Getty Images

Vino seems to be in better shape which is not saying much. While he looks like a mummy completely bandaged up on the knees and legs, Vino received 15 stitches in hi right knee and others for the deep gash on high thigh. The pain is tough, but could be bearable enough to allow the Kazak racer to continue in the Tour.

Cyclingnews.com reports:

Vinokourov spent the evening at the hospital in Dijon where it was determined that he had no fractures, but had two deep contusions on both knees, his elbow and abrasions on his hip and buttocks. It is expected that he will take the start for stage six, but the decision will be made Friday morning.

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Filippo Pozzato took a very fast sprint finish into Autun on Stage 5 of the Tour de France. The final slightly uphill finish was so fast that speeds reached up to 50mph. That is some fast turning of the pedals.

The stage was being billed as a hilly challenge that would disrupt the sprinteres and possibly change the Yellow Jersey. The long break that included new Polka Dot wearer Sylvain Chavanel helped to keep things together for most of the race. With sprinteres getting shelled in the final climbs to the finish a select group of the peloton roared in for the finish. Pozzato and other “climbing” sprinters were gunning for the finish including Oscar Friere and Alessandro Ballan. This is the second stage win for the Italian who moved out of the shadow of Tom Boonen at Quick Step.

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The big story of the day was the crash involving Alexandre Vinokourov. The heavy Tour favorite was a victim of a badly timed crash. Other favorites such as Andreas Kloden, Iban Mayo and Carlos Sastre were seen fighting their was back from crashes or other problems. Each were able to bridge back in time,but Vino’s crash was particular bad since he crashed at a time when the peloton was in full roar to the finish. It was quite a site to see seven Astana men forming a train to lead Vino back to the pack passing shelled riders and cars along the course. One by one each of the Astana men blew up and coasted in until there was just Vino and his team car. Vino did get into a group which contained Tom Boonen where he was helped along the way to the finish.

The One minute plus deficit before any great challenge is not insurmountable. Many of Vino’s rivals will cleebrate just a little bit as they have a little extra time on the favorite. Kloden can also make his case for Team leadership since he is better placed than most of the favorites in the peloton. Either way Astana was a victim of several crashes today.

Alexandre Vinokourov is showing some great time trialling abilities as he captured the bronze medal in the World Time Trial Championships. Vino’s third place spoiled the Team CSC domination as he displaced Brian Vandborg to forth. Fabian Cancellara and David Zabriske two of CSCs time trialing specialist took first and second.

David Millar had a bad day as he came in 11th place and three time former World TT Champ Michael Rogers finished 8th.

Cancellara’s win is sweet revenge for the time trial loss to David Millar in the Vuelta. Plus, this win justifies Cancellara leaving the Vuelta just as Sastre needed all the team support he could get going into the last week.

Alexandre Vinokourov won his first Grand Tour in his own way. The man who is always on the attack was finally able to put it all together and upend the Vuelta just as it looked like an Alejandro Valverde coronation. The Spaniards must be crying in their tapas and wine while the fighting Kazak is going home with the Amarillo Fleece. Kazakstan can be happy that they get some positive news in the press and can show the face of Vino and Kashekin instead of Borat to the world. Borat is hilarious, but the wave of Kazakstan news must have more folks that normal checking out background info on the tiny and cold country.

With several stage wins including a sprint stage, a mountain stage and time trial Vino is looking at next year’s Tour de France with renewed enthusiam. After the unnecessary expulsion of his revamped Astana team from competing in the Tour de France, Vino showed the world what could have been in July. This year’s Tour would have been rip for Vino to pounce on with the ameoba like way in which it evolved. Hopefully if Vino’s team does not suffer through any more Operation Puerto issues and gets a full time spot on the Pro Tour then Alexandre Vinkourov can try and plan his year around the one race that eluded him this year.

Now that Vino is celebrating I can’t help but feel that I should be waiting for the other shoe to drop. After Roberto Heras’s EPO positive result and Ivan Basso’s name showed up in Operation Puerto and Floyd Landis’ testosterone positive, you can’t help but feel like you want to wait for the dust to settle before officially acknowledging that Vino won. This has been a tough year for cycling. If all is clear, then this will be the first Grand Tour in about a year with a “legit” winner. Let’s just hope that Vino enjoys his win and his name is not associated with doping any time soon or ever. I just don’t think I could take another scandal.

David Millar completed his comeback from a two year drug suspension by winning the stage 14 time-trial stage. Millar beat TT specialist Fabian Cancellara by a split second to claim the win. Millar made a point to say that you can win clean in this sport.

Those that use the Millar line to determine who dopes and doesn’t dope based on who beats David Millar can now declare the whole Vuelta clean.

Peta Punch
Alessandro Petacchi was ready to make his comeback on stage 15. He ended up farther back than he hoped and was so Po’d by the loss that he punched the team bus. Well, Peta reacted like anyone trying to punch Superman in the gut. His finger is fractured and that may mean some more healing time for AleJet.

Vino Vanishes for Drug Testers
When the drug testers come calling, you better be there. Vino and Kazak pal Kasheckin missed out on the drug testing when they decided to take the team bus. When the drug testers came called Vino and Kash were 80km away with a 10am start not too far off. No word on the fallout of missing the tests, but this is not what Astana need as they try to put the Operation Puerto fallout behind them and start as a fresh team.

The T-Mobile overhaul continued this week with Mattais Kessler and Andreas Kloden joining old buddies Walter Goodefroot and Alexandre Vinokourov at Astana. It seems like a mini T-Mobile reunion at the Kazak based team.

Kloden’s move to Astana must mean that he does not have many hopes for a high overall placing at the Tour since the team is pretty much Vinokourov’s. Kloden is used to playing support, but has shown flashes of brilliance this year and in 2004. If Vinokourov truly thought that this year was his last chance at an overall win, then getting Kloden on the team gives Astana a strong option in case Vino is genuinely done with the chase for the Yellow Jersey.

Andreas Kloden blasted Olaf Luwig for poor team management during the Tour de France. T-Mobile has never been know team tactics a point which was highlighted last year when Kloden and Ullrich reeled in an attacking Vinokourov. This year the blunders continued as T-Mobile seemed to have one of the strongest teams but would still execute the occasional blunder of chasing down a teammate. Overall T-Mobile probably executed better than in the in the past, but Kloden blames T-Mobile and Phonak for allowing Oscar Periero so much time, a move which could eventually give him the overall Tour title over Kloden if/when Landis is stripped of his title.

Kloden and Kessler’s move may not have been too much of a surprise to T-Mobile management since they did not reward the team’s performance in the Tour with better contracts. Some riders were even offered paycuts according to Kloden.

T-Mobiles shakeup must be long overdue since the team was notoriously known for paying huge contracts but not getting many results. Ironically this is all happening after a better than usual team performance at the Tour de France.

Now Vino and his Spanish climbing support team can relax and get ready for one of the flattest Tours in recent memory.

Comunidad Valencianna (formerly Kelme) are now uninvited to the Tour de France as a result of the Operation Puerto investigation. No surprise from this announcement as it was already seen as a done deal. Jean Marie Leblanc has stated previously that no other team will be invited in place of CV. No surprise there either since at 22 teams there would be a record size for fields at the Tour de France. Plus, it would be a bit late to send out another invitation to a team such as Unibet, Barloworld, LPR or Panaria.

Today, the UCI will look at the proposed switch of sponsorships for Astana, a Kazak conglomerate to take over for Liberty Seguros. If the UCI does not approve of the switch then the currently named Wurth team could be denied a ProTour spot which would guarantee that LeBlanc and Prudomme will promptly send out another uninvite to the shattered Spanish team. Prodhomme has stated that they will not replace any team no matter how many teams get involved in the Operation Puerto scandal. He mentioned that the Tour could run with 15 or 16 team if necessary. There has not been much word on other teams being involved, perhaps Prudhomme knows some insider information, but with only two or so weeks to go, it would be dificult to imaging the UCI pulling the license of other teams.

With the smaller peloton, riders such as Levi Leipheimer might be relieved that crazy Spanish guys aren’t clogging up the road like in 2003. That is the year that Levi went home after a mass pileup that also say Tyler trudge through the Tour with a broken collarbone.

Manolo Saiz finally stepped down from being the Director Sportif of Astana-Wurth, to simply being involved with Active Bay which is the management company that runs the team. Good news for Saiz to step away as his continued presence as DS was very detrimental to the team.

Surprisingly though, Alexandre Vinokourov is not jumping ship from the Astana-Wurth formation. Sure, his presence helped bring in the new sponsor which is a conglomerate of Kazak sponsors. If the UCI does not approve the sponsor switch then Vino will be left on the sidelines only weeks before his major season goal. Does Vino have a backup plan? I couldn’t imagine Vino’s agent would not be trying to secure a backup ride with a team like Saunier Duval or Agributel. Getting on a small French team would guarantee Vino’s presence in the Tour. Only problem would be that he might not have enough support, but at least he would be in with a chance of riding. So Vino, get on the phone to Agributel right away before its too late.

A preview of the new kit was seen in a recent stage of the Dauphine Libere.

The new sponsor has interestingly decided to use Kazak spokesman Borat to put on the new kit. They even switched to Kazak made Borat bikes instead of the BH bikes that were previously used.

Is it just too much to ask that if you sign a contract with a major sponsor that is taking a chance on cycling that you would at least try and run a clean program? This is tought to swallow for a sponsor especially after Liberty restructured the contract to put a zero tolerance rule on doping. This comes as strike three after two strikes in 2005. Roberto Heras’ DQ as Vuelta champ is enough to take, so why would Saiz simply continue with the doping program when there is so much to lose?

The protests from Roberto Heras saying that he was being setup or unfairly implicated must ring hollow now that Saiz was basically caught red handed in this latest doping affair.

What about Vino?
Podium Cafe has some speculation about whose maglia Alexandre Vinokourov will be wearing when the Tour rolls around. Neil Stephans who was a member of Festina during the 1998 scandal and a team manager at Liberty (Hmm, maybe this guys knows more about doping that anyone suspects?) is proclaiming that the team will still ride even if they have no sponsor. I’d like to know how they will pay Vino to ride the Tour? Maybe he will ride for free since free is better than sitting at home and losing out at a prime chance at win the biggest bike race in the world.

Either way, we will not be enduring the shouts of “Venga Venga Venga” from Manolo Saiz’s bullhorn as he encourages riders to go faster during a time trials. Saiz will be working with lawyer preparing his defense or a guilty plea by July.

If Vino does not stay with x-Liberty, I would guess he would be picked up by a team like Saunier Duval. Vino would make a great combo with David Millar. Two guys on opposite ends of doping scandals. Vino just got burned and Millar is just coming back. The ying/yang aspect is too good to pass up. Either way, if Vino still wins the Kazak National Championships again he can simply slap on a new sponsor name over his light blue and yellow kit. That is of course if he is not in jail or implicated as part of the Saiz scandal.

This focus on training is all geared to winning the Tour de France in July, a tough task considering he is not a Time Trial specialist.

Currently there is a rare Vino sighting in Spain, where the Kazak leads the Tour of Castille and Leon. His training seems to be paing off with good form. So, with his current good form, Vino will try to carry it over to defending the Liege Bastongne Liege title that he won last year.

Vino will not have to worry about getting the glue from the racing numbers off his light blue and yellow Kazak champions kit too much this year. After Liege, Vino will only race the Daupine Libere as a tune up to the Tour. Gee, I think even Lance Armstrong did more racing leading up to the Tour than what Vino is doing this year.

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