Re: Astana not ready for Giro

Personally I think Astana has planned poorly. Astana has stated that
their goal was to perform well enough to convince the ASO to let them
ride in TDF. Today they are not fully prepared for the Giro. Astana
should have ready for the major tours. One possiblity is that that
they may race into form in the Giro and contend. I think this is
unlikely since the Giro and the TDF have become hypercomepetitive in
recent years. So this makes it  much harder to do so.  One scenario is
that Contador or Leipheimer do well in the TT's and stay within
striking distance until the latter part of the race.

Colin Campbell wrote:
> hizark21 wrote:
> > Contador and Leiphiemier have said they are not fully ready for the
> > Giro. This is a bit of surprise considering how late in the season it
> > is. If Astana does not peform well this could dampen any chances of
> > getting accepted into the TDF.
>
> As others have said, it is no surprise that Astana is not fully ready
> for a race they were not entered in until a couple of days ago.
>
> Now, if they show up and ride the Giro, and if the ASO (that acronym
> reminds me of a derogatory word in English) caves and accepts them for
> the TdF (right now, they are the only grand tour that isn't allowing
> last year's Tour winner and third place rider to enter - seems kind of
> stupid, not to mention actionable), I would expect the TdF prospects to
> ride as much of the Giro as will aid their TdF preparation, and then
> drop out, citing the always popular food poisoning excuse, or something
> similar.