Astana Cycling Team

The return

Cyclingnews: What are the big differences in the peloton since you retired in 2005?
Lance Armstrong: I am honestly still trying to figure that out. It is tricky for me to figure out so far because Australia has been an anomaly and California is kind of an anomaly.

I can tell you that from Australia and the Tour of California the racing has been fast. I think that's good for racing, good for the sport... You roll around in Australia and all of a sudden you are on the limit, and you say to some guy, 'I thought this was a fun race.' I thought it was one of these races where guys have a beer the night before and then show up and race the next day. The next thing you know, this year we are all in the gutter and suffering on the limit.

I think those guys realise that the races are televised around the world. Every media outlet from the neighbourhood paper all the way up to the international papers were there. There is a lot of added attention and pressure from their sponsors and teams. So the guys came fit and ready to race. That happens, and shit, the thing rolls down the road a lot quicker.

CN: Can you put a figure on how much your comeback has generated to date for the Livestrong foundation?
LA: It's an interesting time for all of us. Most non-profits are working on a 40 to 50 percent reduction in funds raised for this year based on the economy in the United States and around the world. We are flat to slightly up; I suspect that has to do with the comeback and the added attention around that. Read the rest of this entry →

TOMORROW: VUELTA A CASTILLA Y LEÓN

March 23 - 27, 2009

“The race is riding on the time trial”

Tomorrow Alberto Contador will begin his third contest of the season, the Vuelta a Castilla y León. He's especially looking forward to his first race back in Spain, his home country. Contador, who has won the last two editions of Castilla y León, sees this race as relaxed and particularly appealing. “It’s a region that, you might say, is very familiar to me.”

Are you looking forward to racing in Spain again?

Yes, of course, especially at Castilla y León, which is a race I really like. I’ve ridden it several times and it’s gone very well.

What are your feelings on the eve of battle? Are you thinking about a third consecutive victory?

I’m motivated and ready to race, but I see this edition as very difficult, because everything depends on the 28-kilometer time trial, since the mountain finishes will be for arriving in the group. I’ll do a test on the day of the time trial and we’ll just see what happens then, but in principle this route is better for Leipheimer. Read the rest of this entry →

King Armstrong holds court in Milan's Castello Sforzesco

By Gregor Brown, March 20, 2009

Lance Armstrong is on the eve of his return to racing in Europe. The American from Texas arrived at Milan's Castello Sforzesco Friday to hold a press conference one day before the 298-kilometre Milano-Sanremo, three years and eight months since he ended his career at the 2005 Tour de France.

The team Astana rider, 37, started his comeback journey in the fall of 2008 with some local races, but he pinned on his race number for the first time at the Tour Down Under in January. In February, he continued his racing programme in the Tour of California, but the Milano-Sanremo is the first time he is racing in an event that is so much a part of cycling's history.

Armstrong retired from the sport immediately after his seventh Tour de France victory. In his post-cancer career he excelled in stage races, not one-day races, although he did race a few of them. His last one was the 2005 Ronde van Vlaanderen, and his last appearance at Milano-Sanremo was in 2002.

"My first Milano-Sanremo was in 1993, with Motorola," said Armstrong. "I remember it well, even if I was not a factor because I was there to work for Max Sciandri."

"I think it is my sixth or seventh time here [at Milano-Sanremo]. For me it represents a lot of the history and beauty in cycling. It has a certain mystique. Unfortunately, I could not do the Tour of Flanders because of scheduling, but I wanted to do more Classics."

"It is good for training as well. It is hard to go out and do 300 kilometres in training."

What is your main ambition?

Lance Armstrong: I want to have a good and safe day. We know this race can be dangerous. If there are 30 or 40 guys in the end, I hope I am there with them. This race was never my strong suit, but I hope to be somewhat involved. Read the rest of this entry →

Five ProTour teams have not yet made the required contributions to the biological passport programme, and may be excluded from the upcoming Paris-Nice if they do not make the required minimum payment by today. At a press conference in Paris today, UCI President Pat McQuaid said that Cofidis, Bbox Bouygues Telecom, Silence-Lotto, Quick Step and Caisse d'Epargne are the teams involved.

"If the teams do not pay by the close of business today, they will not be able to take part in the UCI's World Calendar races," McQuaid said. The teams' contribution to the biological passport programme is 120,000 Euro. Half is due by March 5, and the second half due by the end of June. Some teams have already paid the full amount, and other teams have paid only the required first-half. McQuaid did not indicate whether the five teams have paid nothing or have paid less than the required amount.

He further noted that all of the Professional Continental teams who have wild-card status and belong to the biological passport programme have paid in full.

McQuaid said that as far as he knew, LPR Brakes had paid the full amount, but that Quick Step had not. "It is not acceptable that small teams with a smaller budged have paid, but that some ProTour teams have not," McQuaid said. Read the rest of this entry →

Rider Profile: Get to Know Kevyn Ista of Agritubel  

by gavia on Mar 5, 2009

"He has crazy potential," says one of Kevyn Ista's sports directors at Agritubel. Of course, a DS will always praise his own riders. The 24 year old Ista from the Wallon region of Belgium gave a hint of his future potential this past weekend by placing second at the Omloop het Nieuwsblad. In his post-race comments Ista said, "I am predisposed toward pretty much all the classics. I have loved them since I was a junior." He admitted post-race that the crash in the final sprint helped his chances. In the normal way of things, he might have finished closer to fifth. Still a top five finish in a race like OHN is not exactly small frites.

Kevyn Ista started racing at fourteen after nine years playing football as a striker (attaquer). As a junior, the sprinter from Namur won two Belgian National Championships on the track. He rode the match sprint and the points race. As an U23, he rode well in the Ardennes and showed a talent for bunch sprinting. But his biggest result came at the U23 Ronde van Vlaanderen. Not surprisingly, he hopes to match that win at the elite edition of the Ronde before his career is up. Read the rest of this entry →

Astana's Twitter informed us about new stuff in Astana official web-store  - one more Long-sleeve shirt, hoodie and women T-shirt. I don't know could anybody imagine any students or engineers who would go to university or to work in this clothing?

Why all logos and titles are too enormous big? Look at Johan or riders in team jackets and fleeces, small logos are much better and not too flashy! OK, maybe if you go to support your team during a race - big logo on t-shirt is acceptable, but for casual apparel when you just want to say that you're Astana fan - seems like you're a clown in circus. Read the rest of this entry →

Guess Who? - Lance Armstrong's comeback - SportsIllustrated.CNN.com

Just because he's lean and ripped and far more fit than he's ever been at this time of year, Lance Armstrong won't necessarily regain the form that won him seven Tours de France. Just because those questions about his past have faded from the foreground, they haven't necessarily gone away. And while none of them care to be quoted, there are plenty of cycling people who wish he'd leave and not come back. He is a magnet for attention that might otherwise redound to more deserving riders -- guys like his Astana teammate Levi Leipheimer, who on Sunday clinched his third straight victory in the Amgen Tour of California, but whose next mention in this story is more than a thousand words away. But give Armstrong this: Three-and-a-half years after his retirement, two races into his comeback, he has plunged an IV full of Red Bull into the arm of a sport sorely in need of a pick-me-up. By his mere presence in the peloton, the 37-year-old Texan makes pro cycling an infinitely more interesting proposition. Who else could turn a slow night at the Tour of Cali into an episode of CSI: Sacramento? Read the rest of this entry →

Polemica: Race Radios and the Tour de France

by gavia on Feb 25, 2009

The debate over the use of radios in cycling has reignited in France this week. Daniel Bilalian of France Télévisions wants to put an end to the use of race radios, beginning with this year's Tour de France. Bilalian places race radios on the "same level as doping," as something that is destroying cycling. "The ear pieces transform the riders into automatons," he says, and they kill the spectacle and unpredictability of the racing. Bilalian says he hates to see riders stopped on the road, directed by their team management to hold back or to wait. For instance, Bilalian would like to have seen Andy Schleck ride all out on the Alpe d'Huez, and blames the voice of Riis in his ear for his passive ride during last year's Tour de France. "The renewal of cycling depends on the fight against doping, and I place the disappearance of the ear piece between rider and Directeurs Sportif on the same plain," Bilalian told L'Équipe. Read the rest of this entry →