Astana Set For Giro d’Italia Invite

By editor on May 3rd, 2008

This is excellent news for Astana. We at Bicycle.net would be thrilled to see Astana at the Giro. Anything that increases the level of competition is good for cycling.

PARIS, May 3, 2008 (AFP) - Giro d’Italia organizers could perform a dramatic u-turn and invite the Kazakh-backed Astana cycling team to this year’s race.

The team of Tour de France winner Alberto Contador, Astana were controversially not invited to either the Giro or the Tour by the respective race organizers earlier this year.

But according to a report Saturday in Gazzetta dello Sport, the team run by Johan Bruyneel, the Belgian who helped steer Lance Armstrong to seven yellow jerseys, could finally join the roster of the May 10-June 1 race.

The report claimed their participation would depend on the inclusion of Contador, American Levi Leipheimer and German ace Andreas Kloden - all three of whom have finished on the Tour de France podium.

Race organizer Angelo Zomegnan, cited by Gazzetta, said the decision would be taken after the final stage of the Tour of Romandie, currently being led by Kloden.

“Astana remains a candidate to participate in the Giro. We have reserved the right to invite all teams right up till the last minute,” Zomegnan said in a report on the newspaper’s website.

The owners of the Giro d’Italia, RCS - who also own the Gazzetta dello Sport - did not confirm nor deny the report.

Astana were officially notified of their invitation to the Tour of Spain, held in September, days ago although the team had never officially been rejected from the three-week Vuelta.

Organizers of the Tour de France, run by the Amaury Sports Organization
(ASO) said earlier this year that the doping scandals which plagued Astana at last year’s race had left them with little choice despite the team undergoing a mass clear-out.

The team’s former leader, Alexandre Vinokourov, was fired after testing positive for a blood transfusion during last year’s Tour.

Weeks after the Vinokourov controversy his fellow Kazakh Andrey Kashechkin also tested positive for blood doping. Other teams riders, including Matthias Kessler and Eddy Mazzoleni, were also involved in doping affairs

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