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by Justin Davis ARCALIS, Andorra, July 10, 2009 (AFP) - Alberto Contador relaunched his bid for the 2009 yellow jersey on the first mountain stage of the Tour de France after taking back time previously lost to teammate Lance Armstrong. Speculation since before the race that Contador's Astana team might favour the seven-time champion instead of the much younger Spaniard, who won … [Read more...]
by Ryland James MONACO, July 3, 2009 (AFP) - Astana boss Johan Bruyneel played down the rivalry brewing between team-mates Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador on the eve of Saturday's opening stage of the 2009 Tour de France. Bruyneel has a true embarrassment of riches in his squad with seven-time champion Armstrong possibly bidding for another crown nearly four years after … [Read more...]
by Ryland James MONACO, July 2, 2009 (AFP) - Banned rider Alexandre Vinokourov, whose doping suspension ends on July 24, insisted he will return to the Astana team even if it means its manager, Johan Bruyneel, has to leave the team. The 35-year-old Kazakh, who failed a doping test at the 2007 Tour, is free to ride again later this month and on Thursday reiterated his intention to … [Read more...]
The Khazakstan government has agreed to back cycling's Astana outfit for the rest of the 2009 season, including the Tour de France, a team spokesman said on Thursday. The promise of support guarantees the involvement of seven-times Tour winner Lance Armstrong and 2007 winner Alberto Contador in the race which starts at Monaco on June 4. "It was impossible to imagine our team being … [Read more...]
Lance Armstrong will be able to compete for his eighth Tour de France title this summer after his Astana team announced on Monday that they have resolved their financial problems. Unpaid bank guarantees meant the Kazakh team, who also boast Spain's 2007 Tour de France champion Alberto Contador, had been threatened with expulsion from this year's race, which begins on July 4. "The … [Read more...]
PARIS, June 5, 2009 (AFP) - Astana, the team of seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong and Spanish star Alberto Contador, have yet to pay a bank guarantee on which their racing future depends, manager Johan Bruyneel said Friday. "The problem has not yet been sorted," Bruyneel told AFP regarding pending payments due from the Kazakh cycling federation. In midweek, the … [Read more...]
Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong said his 12th-placed finish in the Giro d'Italia, which ended on Sunday, was "promising" ahead of this year's French test. The 37-year-old American, who broke a collarbone in a crash on the Tour of Castilla and Leon in March, and his Astana team had insisted that he had not come into his first ever Tour of Italy looking for victory. "I … [Read more...]
(New York, NY) - On Wednesday night, Johan Bruyneel, the eight-time winning Tour de France sports director received the 2009 Flanders-America Award from the Flanders House New York. The annual award is given to an individual who has significantly contributed to the relationship between Flanders (a region of Belgium) and America. Bruyneel, most known for leading American cyclist Lance Armstrong to … [Read more...]
Johan Bruyneel, general manager of Astana and former sporting director of Lance Armstrong's US Postal and Discovery Channel outfits, said Tuesday he thought reports of the seven-time Tour de France champ returning to racing were only "a rumor." Armstrong intended to come out of retirement and bid for an eighth Tour de France title, VeloNews reported on its website on Monday but "I think … [Read more...]