Re: Astana not ready for Giro

On Jun 2, 6:15 pm, Ryan Cousineau <rcous...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> In article <77t844dr0ham00ivg0f1qae73ctq4jh...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
>  John Forrest Tomlinson <usenetrem...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
> > On Mon, 2 Jun 2008 15:01:40 -0700 (PDT), hizark21 <hizar...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> > wrote:
>
> > >(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2008/jun08/jun02news2)
> > >Bruyneels thinks that Astana should be allowed to enter the TDF. I
> > >agree with this. So given this fact I think that Contador should be
> > >preparing the TDF rather than going on vacation..
>
> > But isn't winnng a grand tour these days pretty much the same as a
> > positive doping result?  So it means Astana is out.  If they'd sucked
> > all year they'd be back in for 09.  As it is now, I doubt the'll get
> > into an ASO races in 2009.
>
> In final ITT of the Giro, Millar was 13th, which means Contador and
> several other elite riders were, as they say, above The Line.
>
> The big shockers were of course that nice Mr. Pate and Mr. Vande Velde.
>

So, my conspiracy theory is that the last-minute Giro
invite to Astana was a test of Bruyneel and/or Contador:
"Let's see how they do in a tour on a couple weeks
notice, and find out if they suck or test positive
because it's the wrong cycle of their program."  Or
alternatively to give Astana an op****tunity to claim
their innocence and embarrass ASO, if they did well.

A weakness of this theory is that it's not obvious
who would orchestrate it, since the UCI, ASO, and
RCS S****t all have different interests.  Maybe it
was Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

The other possible conspiracy theory is that RCS
intended to invite Astana all along and let Bruyneel
know unofficially so he could prepare (or "prepare").
If Lafferty still cared, he probably would have
pointed this possibility out already.

Ben