Astana Cycling Team

Exhausted Bradley Wiggins now knows he can win the Tour de France
Bradley Wiggins tells Donald McRae that his fourth place makes him a serious contender for the Tour de France
Donald McRae The Guardian, Tuesday 4 August 2009

Bradley WIggins is now committed to attempting to win the Tour de France after equalling the best finish by a British rider. Photograph: David Levene/Commissioned for Guardian Sport.

Bradley Wiggins, hunched in a chair and speaking quietly through his exhaustion, remembers the suffering during his hardest day on the Tour de France. It is a chilling moment. He has already revealed that he sometimes thinks of himself as a "fraud" for finishing fourth in the race, despite his compelling courage and resilience, and in a contrasting statement has said that he plans eventually to win the Tour. But this is different.

This is a downbeat murmur that causes goosebumps to rise. For a second Wiggins looks as though he has seen the ghost of Tom Simpson again, the haunting British cyclist who died on the slopes of Mont Ventoux during the 1967 Tour de France. Read the rest of this entry →

-  Good day Nikolay Abramovich! Congratulations! Is Alberto staying with Astana?

- Hello, thank you. Yes.
-  100%?

- Yes.
-  And is Bruyneel leaving? If “yes” were there any chances of a compromise, to have him stay? Have Vinokourov’s harsh statements and some Kazakh cycling federation’s claims contributed to that?

-  Contador stays with Astana upon the condition that Bruyneel leaves, that is his demand!
-  Is it?! Is it possible that Alberto can make such demands? What’s happened?
-  That happened in the end of last year! That’s when their relations were damaged.
-  So is Contador more important for Astana than Bruyneel? But Johan is the #1 manager in the world, he is the only one!
-  Yes, he is more important! He is also the only one! There is another important factor: Bruyneel is totally against Vinokourov and Kashechkin joining Astana!
-  How so? They say in the media that Bruyneel doesn’t mind to see Vino in Astana.
-  In reality it’s different. Not only he’s opposed to that, but also resists! He says something but he doesn’t always do that. We are not against Bruyneel, we even want to collaborate with him further... but these two factors contribute to our separation!

Read the rest of this entry →

Exclusively for astanafans.com - AlikKZ (АликKZ), translation - Di

-          Good day Alexander Leonidovich! How is it going with cycling team Astana? Is everything fine?

-          Yes.

-          Are the financial problems solved? Won’t there be other problems with salaries this season? Can you name the sponsors?

-          Financial problems and problems with sponsors aren’t solved yet.

-          What about an American sponsor?

-          Just talks at the moment

-          Is there new Cycling Federation president?

-          At the moment D. Akhmetov is the president of CF.

-          What would you say about Vinokourov’s statements at the press-conference in Monaco?

-          He should have been gentler. Read the rest of this entry →

A look at the evolution of anti-doping efforts

It's all about blood now. One positive linked to the biological passport keeps following another and it's not just small fry in the net: a former world champion and a Giro winner isn't bad going. The rider who finishes fourth in the Tour, Bradley Wiggins, puts his blood level data up on-line for all to look at so we can be sure he's not up to anything.

It's all so normal but once, blood was controversial. It's 12-and-a-half years since the then-UCI head Hein Verbruggen told me about a radical step in any sport: random blood testing with a limit of 50 per cent for haematocrit. It was a long, discursive interview, and the extracts published in the magazine I worked for then, Cycle Sport, make fascinating, if depressing reading today.

There was a sombre background, although nothing compared to the current context. By the winter of 1996-7, it was becoming apparent that EPO was being abused in professional cycling but no one had absolute proof of the extent. The Donati report, researched by Italy's leading anti-doping scientist earlier in the decade, had been leaked to a news magazine and outlined how EPO use was widespread in that country.

L'Equipe had run a series of revelations which now look routine but were explosive back then: riders claiming that they could not compete with rivals who were abusing EPO, doctors alleging that everyone used the blood booster. Read the rest of this entry →

We’ve collected preliminary info about Astana rosters for races from Giro till TdF:

• 9-31.05 - Giro d'Italia: Armstrong, Leipheimer, Braicovic, Horner, Morabito, Navarro, Popovych, Rubiera, Zeits
• 15-17.05 - Tour de Picardie: Dmitriev, Kupeshov, Raimbekov, Muraviev, Rast, Schar, Renev
• 18-24.05 - Volta Ciclista a Catalunya: Bazayev, Horner, Iglinskiy, Noval, Paulinho, Hernandez, Dyachenko, Zubeldia
• 27-31.05 - Tour of Belgium: ????
• 3-6.06 - Tour de Luxembourg: Klöden, Bazayev, Muraviev, Rast, Schar, Dyachenko, Dmitriev, Raimbekov
• 7-14.06 - Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré: Contador, Leipheimer, Iglinskiy, Noval, Paulinho, Vaitkus, Zubeldia
• 13-21.06 - Tour de Suisse: Bazayev, Iglinskiy, Klöden, Braicovic, Morabito, Muraviev, Rast, Shaer,Kireyev
• 4-26.07 - Tour de France: Contador, Armstrong, Leipheimer, Klöden, Horner, Iglinskiy, Muraviev, Noval, Popovych, Rast, Rubiera, Vaitkus, Zubeldia

We’ve collected preliminary info about Astana rosters for nearest races. Of course that everything could be changed. In bold - the riders who confirmed their plans in press or directly.

• 12.04 - Paris - Roubaix: Popovych, Rast, Schar, Dmitriev, Kupeshov, Raimbekov, Morabito, Noval, (Vaitkus, Renev - injury)
• 19.04 - Amstel Gold Race: Bazayev, Horner, Iglinskiy, Muraviev, Noval, Morabito, Dyachenko, Hernandez
• 22.04 - La Flèche Wallonne: Kloeden, Zubeldia, Bazayev, Horner, Iglinskiy, Noval, Paulinho, Hernandez, Dyachenko
• 26.04 - L-B-L: Braicovic, Zubeldia, Bazayev, Horner, Iglinskiy, Noval, Paulinho, Hernandez, Dyachenko
• 22-25.04 - Giro del Trentino: Braicovic, Popovych, Dmitriev, Kupeshov, Raimbekov, Kireev, Zeits, Renev - ?, Armstrong
  
• 28.04 - 3.05 - Tour de Romandie: Kloeden, Zubeldia, Horner - ?, Morabito, Navarro, Rubiera, Schar
• 9-31.05 - Giro d'Italia: Armstrong-?, Leipheimer-?, Braicovic, Horner, Kireev, Morabito, Navarro, Popovych, Rubiera, Zeits, Vaitkus Read the rest of this entry →

Klöden: Quiet, methodical and looking to July
German quietly on track for Tour
By Andrew Hood

Andreas Klöden lines up Tuesday for the start of the Circuit de la Sarthe as one of the top favorites for victory.

The Astana rider, winner of the French race in 2007, revealed he’s on some strong early season form with a stage victory and third-place overall at Tirreno-Adriatico last month and fifth in his season debut at the Volta ao Algarve in February.

For the veteran German, races like Sarthe and next month’s Tour de Romandie (which he won in 2008) are all part of a plan to arrive at the Tour de France in the best possible condition.

“I will only look to the Tour. Everything I do now is to be ready for the Tour,” Klöden told VeloNews in an interview earlier this season. “I want to arrive at the Tour at 110 percent condition, then we’ll see.” Read the rest of this entry →

By Bonnie D. Ford
ESPN.com

Lance Armstrong's team manager and longtime friend Johan Bruyneel on Monday strongly disputed a report that the cyclist deliberately stalled a representative of the French anti-doping agency (AFLD) during an out-of-competition test on March 17.

Armstrong was training in southern France at the time in preparation for the Milan-San Remo one-day race. Unsourced reports on several French Web sites and Radio Monte Carlo stated that Armstrong kept the doctor sent by the AFLD waiting for 30 minutes behind a closed door before giving samples. The French daily sports newspaper L'Equipe reported that the AFLD had filed a report about the incident and forwarded it to the UCI, cycling's international governing body, and WADA.

AFLD head Pierre Bordry would not confirm any details about the report. "I am not making any judgment on what is in the report, because I'm not certain that it's an infraction," Bordry told ESPN.com.

Bordry said he was still awaiting a formal response from the UCI, but federation spokesman Enrico Carpani told ESPN.com that the UCI has no jurisdiction over this kind of issue. "The rules are very clear," Carpani said. "Any out-of-competition control made by a national anti-doping agency has to be managed by them." Read the rest of this entry →