In-form Contador loses team in Paris-Nice boilover

So where did the Astana team go? There one moment, gone the next. Paris-Nice has been enlightening. Contador's skill, luck and good form won him the short TT section and the lead, much to the annoyance of the prologue specialists, but now his team has gone missing when the heat was on. Still, losing a minute is not the end of the world, it just puts him back where he probably should have been.

Once Rabobank hit the front Contador was in the fourth group on the road. He knew he had to do something. "I saw I had no teammates. The situation was very difficult, but I saw there was a short steep slope coming up and I accelerated." Contador looked good on the uphill, but closing the gap proved to be hard. He received some help from Christophe Moreau (Agritubel) to reach the group ahead. "This was the only possibility for me to save the race," Contador said.

I am guessing that Astana will get their act together in May and July. But there are some quietly good achievers steadily working to put roadblocks in the path of Armstrong, Contador and Co. Should be interesting.

King Contador cruising. Why am I uneasy?

I have that queasy, uneasy feeling again. The Lance A. comeback. His protege Contador winning 2 Grand Tours in a year, 3 in under 2 years; one with little preparation, straight off the beach. And Astana, back in the thick of things, loaded with talent.

25-year-old Alberto Contador carved his name into the annals of cycling history by becoming the first Spaniard to win all three Grand Tours on Sunday in his home town of Madrid. The Astana star who had been denied his opportunity to defend his 2007 Tour de France title when the race organiser refused to invite his team had vowed to get revenge at his home Tour, and he succeeded.

If I trusted these guys - and I must admit it's a leap of faith to do so - would it be good or bad for the sport? Lots of publicity, sure, but have we really finished with the laundry here? Hopefully the blood passports are doing the job, because we need some indication of where fair is fair.

OTOH, was it ever thus? When has life been fair?

Lance returns: do we care?

Well it will kick up some dust, sure. Lance Armstrong's comeback is in the grand US tradition of retiring at the top yet seeking another "final" blaze of glory. Indeed it can't be easy to step out of the limelight and start a "normal" life, if cancer-survivor LA's life could ever be called normal. So a comeback - a well-planned, targeted one at that - could give LA another shot at proving whatever it is he's trying to prove. His innocence, perhaps?

He says he's clean and I take him at his word. He says it's for cancer-fighting publicity, but there must be something in it for him as well. Assuming he does come back, whatever the reasons, does he link with the cleaned-up residue that is Astana, banned from Le Tour 2008? Or does he seek a pure, clean break with the past? I hope the latter - but suspect he'll fall in with the "trusted" old Bruyneel team, irrespective. I'd like to be proven wrong on that.

Lastly, if he does join Astana and they get a berth at Le Tour (no guarantees there but probable), will he be top dog? One assumes so, but will it be the case if Contador has an edge in week 3? Contador's still young, so I suspect he'll roll over easily, but it won't necessarily be easy for him, either.

Giro 2008: a grand stage indeed

You can't complain about a stage like this one - it had a bright beginning, a wonderful middle and an emphatic - and glorious - ending. Who doesn't want to win a stage like this, especially when it's 2 wins from 2?

From CN: "the maglia rosa was now isolated completely and already eight minutes back. Soon, Sella could see the familiar mountain sight of RVs and knew he was doing well. The road became narrower and narrower, as more and more people lined the road and Sella pushed on, increasing his lead to 2'40" over the main chasers, with seven kilometres to go."

Apart from Sella, Ricco was the standout, grabbing lots of time. Simoni showed plenty of mettle and Contador did enough - just - to secure the overall lead. Tomorrow's mountain ITT should surely see Ricco take the lead (if he wants it)... surely he does!

BTW, Contador beat Evans in finale

Does it really matter? In the final 20km TT Contador - despite suffering "dental problems" was able to overcome Evans and the rest to secure his home race. I guess that's important - it was his home race after all. As well, Evans is building up to July so should still be off the pace, particularly in a short TT that doesn't play to his strengths. Looked at in that light Evans must be pretty pleased with his form.

From CN: Astana's Alberto Contador overcame a week of personal challenges and continued his dominating performance in the Vuelta al País Vasco to win the final stage and the overall classification. In the stage six 20 km time trial, the Spaniard won by 22 seconds over Australian Cadel Evans, from Silence-Lotto. Rabobank's Thomas Dekker was third, 27 seconds back . Evans and Dekker also finished second and third in the overall.

Kirchen wins, waves to teammate

Well he could have. Off in a break, caught at last gasp, your teammate snatches the win. Well yes, Kirchen had to take it, I know, it just seems wrong somehow. Meanwhile, as CN reports,
overall leader Alberto Contador maintained his slim three second lead over Ezequiel Mosquera (Karpin Galicia). The main breakaway of the day, with Possoni, Australian champion Matthew Lloyd (Silence Lotto) and Basque rider Amets Txurruka (Euskaltel – Euskadi) was caught with just 50 metres to the line, and mixed in with the bunch gallop with Possoni coming second, Lloyd fifth and Txurruka in seventh.

There's another chance at a glorious GC-splitting breakaway tomorrow, but with little change on GC since day 1 it's not looking good. It may end in the TT... Evans is just 8 secs back on Contador. Hmmm. Unless someone gets away in the next stage on paper it's an Evans win, but then again with 44 riders within a minute of the lead anything is possible.

Contador versus Evans?

What does it matter? Contador can't defend in July, so it's just a non-event. Or is it? It's a minor side-show at least. Can Contador demonstrate that he should be in a team at Le Tour? Can Evans maintain the roll he's on? Does he want to beat Contador (and the rest)? Or is it all about fine-tuning the Silence-Lotto team for July?

I'd go for a mix of all of the above. Alberto Contador (Astana), virtually lost his GC lead to compatriot Iñigo Landaluze (Euskaltel Euskadi) out on the road, but thanks to the work of his team, he remained in yellow at the end of the day with a five-second margin on Ezequiel Mosquera (Karpin Galicia). Evans is down 8 seconds, as are many others.

A state of general unease

Does anyone else feel uneasy about this? Is it just me? Am I just a doubter by nature?

From Cyclingnews.com:Spanish media reported Wednesday that current Tour de France winner Alberto Contador was close to signing with Astana. Along with Contador would come Johan Bruyneel in a management role. Both Bruyneel and Contador are free to find new teams effective December 31, when their current Discovery Channel team comes to an end.

Maybe it's fate and it will all turn out for the best.

Bad taste for Bruyneel, what about us?

If Le Tour was a win for Disco and Contador it still left some bad tastes in many mouths... and for Disco's win to be followed by the sponsorship pullout and total disbandment of the team verges on... well, it's unusual, to say the least. And Bruyneel himself moving to the trouble-plagued Astana outfit? Possibly with Contador? Does anyone feel uneasy at all, whether justified or not?

Johan Bruyneel had some interesting things to say to CN here: Johan Bruyneel accompanies his star rider Alberto Contador to the USA for the Discovery Channel team's final race this weekend, the Tour of Missouri, bringing the Tour de France champion and a tinge of bitterness along for the end of an era. After eight years directing the organisation which was more successful than any team in modern memory, Bruyneel has eight Tour de France victories to remember but leaves with a bad taste in his mouth. Bruyneel became familiar with the whispers of doping which follow every modern Tour winner, having stood by Lance Armstrong as he fended off one doping accusation after another through press releases and lawsuits, but this year's Tour was too much."They have not let me enjoy Contador's victory in the Tour," the Belgian told Marca, complaining of the accusations of involvement with Operación Puerto which followed the Spaniard's victory. "With that atmosphere, it has been the worse Tour of my life," Bruyneel lamented. Not one month after the end of the Tour, the team's owner, Tailwind Sports, announced it would end its bid for a new title sponsor, effectively disbanding the organisation. Bruyneel hastily announced his retirement along with the news. He blamed the atmosphere surrounding Contador's win for his decision. "All of that was the main reasons why I did not desire to continue.

Le Tour de France 2007 - Stage 14 - Contador climbs to win

In summary, Contador had a lot to gain and set about doing it, with the help of Leipheimer and co. Yellow jersey holder Rasmussen tacked on the back and stayed there, and Cadel Evans did likewise until just before the finale. Valverde stumbled badly and Vino was shattered, both of them losing a lot of time. For Vinokourov it's the end of this year's GC challenge. So Contador won over Rasmussen, but the Chicken had proven himself equal to the challenge and he didn't fret any feathers over missing the win. Evans was just off the final, brutal pace and ended up back with Kloden. For Evans it's time lost, for Contador a significant step forward and for Rasmussen, respect.

The top nine are now Michael Rasmussen first on GC and looking good for Paris. He just has to keep consolidating in the climbs, build on that lead and survive the next TT. It's do-able but he'd expect to lose at least 1-2 minutes in that TT, so he needs that buffer desperately.

Alberto Contador is next and stands a great chance to take the overall, if he can keep this level of attacking climbing up and not lose too much time in the TT. Realistically he's young but strong - if he fades it won't be a surprise - but if doesn't win this year watch out for the future.

After Contador comes Cadel Evans who faded and lost a minute and a place today. He needs to dig deep now and not lose any more time. He proved his TT prowess is the equal or better of all of these top 5 riders, so a motivated final TT could still see him grab the overall prize. After one slightly disappointing Pyrenean stage it's too early to write him off but it was a test and he fell slightly short. Having teammates to help him would have made a difference, but he will face the same problem in stage 15.. and it's a big stage. He could lose more time, or Rasmussen and Contador could crack first.

Leaping Levi Leipheimer has lept up to 4th and is gunning for Cadel's spot. It's a tough ask but with team mate Contador to play with it's game on. Kloden and Sastre follow Leipheimer and pose a threat to both Evans and Leipheimer. Either could pull one out of the bag in the mountains and Kloden especially could take back some time in the TT. It's probably too late for Valverde who has slipped to 9th place, almost 10 minutes back.

So, will it be fireworks in Stage 15? Will Rasmussen and Contador go hammer and tongs again or will they suffer from some pretty big efforts in the last few days? Will someone out of overall contention take a long break and get well clear, leaving the GC battlers to fight it out decisively on one big climb? Or will they batten down the hatches and play it cool?