I seem to remember Lance and Alberto talking about having to buy certain cycling equipment when they were abroad because they couldn’t get good quality stuff in Kazakhstan, but I can’t find a source on that. However, well sourced are the frequent radio breakdowns during last year’s Tour de France. More importantly Contador blames the breakdown a TV in the Astana pace car for Chaingate, when Andy Schleck, the leader, had to stop to change his chain. Although it’s bad form to try to beat the leader when he has a pit stop, Contador didn’t know he’d stopped and thus charged on ahead.

So it seems unlikely that Contador would want to return to Astana in any way, shape or form.

Furthermore, it appears that Makhmetov offered Liquigas the use of Kazakhstan gas supply facilities in exchange for the use of their top rider, Vincenzo Nibali. Since when does the CFO of a sports team have the ability to negotiate with the oil and gas infrastructure of a country? (Velonation reports that Astana was willing to pay 3 million Euros to Liquigas and 1.5 million a year to Nibali for 2 years just to buy him outright.

Finally, should Saxobank agree, that would bring Alberto Contador back into the Astana orbit. Contador seemed to have pretty well burned his bridges with Astana, and vice versa. In fact recently, Team Astana released a statement that they supported Contador’s temporary suspension. So how Alberto would feel about being merged back into the team, I don’t know. And how Vinokourov, who plans to retire next year and will likely be given a management role, would feel about Contador coming back or these machinations happening without his knowledge is unclear.

I suspect, however, that either this will all turn out to be a misunderstanding or that any offers will be withdrawn.

Warming Up Sunday for the second match by Chris Merriman

End of the first set. Nice drop shot by Chiudinelli.

The last two points of the match between Kukushikin-Chiudinelli

While Team Astana is still hoping to negotiate with Contador, apparently they are weighing other options too. According to Velo Nation, Team Astana is in talks with Menchov. The general secretary of the Kazakhstan Cycling Federation, Valentin Rejert, says he is quite upset with the way he was informed of Contador’s decision and while he would love to keep the Spainard, “…we cannot wait forever.” One piece of good news for Kazakhstan sports fans: Rejet said that the team will emphasize the promotion of young Kazakh cyclists.” meaning sometime in the future we might actually get a Kazakhstan Team Astana champion!

Also, check out Kazakh Nomad’s take on the Tour and a strange quote from well-respected linguist Olzhas Suleimenov who is apparently disappointed that the Kazakh national anthem wasn’t played in Paris.

from http://www.letourdefrance.com

As everyone knows by now, Alberto Contador won the Tour de France! It was a great race between him and Andy Schleck. And teammate Alexandre Vinokourov won the 13th stage, so it was a great Tour de France for Kazakhstan! Also, for all the talk about how Armstrong was 38 years old and therefore we couldn’t expect a great performance from him, Vinokourov is 36 and he came in 16th overall! Not bad.

In other Kazakhstan sports news, Andrey Golubev recently won the ATP Hamburg tennis tournament, beating Davydenko who won it last year and was seeded at #1. Personally I think that our athletes are the best way to promote the brand image of Kazakhstan. Granted, we sort of bought Contador and Golubev, but our own Kazakhstany trainers and athletes and managers were part of that victory and hopefully, these champions are teaching our own boys how to win.

And thanks to this site, I just found the national football team site: Sbornaya.kz Sbornaya is the Russian word for team, not the name of the team.

But I did discover THE Astana Cycling Team Fan Club which has a lot more up-to-date news on it, granted pulled from other sites and sources. (English version here. Interesting article about how Contador had to buy his own wheels during the Tour de France because Astana wouldn’t pay for the best wheels.

This comes from an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport in November which also reveals that one of Contador’s conditions for staying with Astana was a strict anti-doping program.

Interestingly, probably out of frustration, Denis Proskurin, the deputy head of the Kazakh Cycling Federation accused Johann Bruyneel of doing everything he could to get Team Astana disqualified while he was coach of the team! Proskurin went so far as to say that Bruyneel had actually been heard saying in no uncertain terms that his goal was to destroy Astana’s team. The charges might be easier to believe if he hadn’t gone to say taht he felt UCI wanted to keep the Tour de France a European competition and was deliberately trying to keep Asian teams out. That sounds a little bit like a persecution complex. But again, perhaps he can be forgiven. He was under a bit of stress.

Bruyneel answered the charges in a YouTube video, saying that they were false and that he is all for a “top team” like Astana:

Despite mulling over offers from other teams, and having the possibility of breaking his contract without penalty, Contador feels optimistic about Team Astana, especially now that Armstrong and Bruyneel. And the deputy president of the Cycling Federation has promised to look into getting new champion cyclists, naming Bradley Wiggins as one possibility.

Samruk-Kazyna, the state holding company that owns most of the companies that sponsor the team, has agreed to fund the team for 2010 to the tune of $22 million plus $3.7 million that has already been sent to the agency that handles salaries. That’s good enough for the UCI, which is renewing the team’s license.

In other news, Kairat Kelimbetov has been named the new head of the Kazakhstan Cycling Federation. Kelimbetov is the chairman of Samruk-Kazyna and a former head of the Presidential Administration. While the AP News article reads this as “a further symbolic gesture of state support for Astana”, it looks to me like Samruk-Kazyna wants to protect their investment by getting a little more control over the team, which is fair enough.

There are also rumors that the team will change its name to Samruk-Kazyna, presumably a publicity move for the holding company. I have also felt it was strange that Team Astana was really the only team out there named after a city and strongly identified with a nation. Most professional teams are linked to their sponsors. Kazakhstan has a national cycling team that competes in international events such as the Olympics and World Championships. Professional cycling is different and doesn’t really fit in with the nationalism and patriotism, especially when most of the riders on Team Astana are not from Kazakhstan.

Update here

In order to clarify some misunderstandings reported in the media, the Astana Cycling Team Management reconfirms that 2009 Tour de France winner Alberto Contador is expected to ride for Team Astana in 2010. Prior to the 2008 season, Contador signed a three-year contract with Team Astana, ensuring that the rider will represent the Kazakh sponsored team for the years 2008, 2009 and 2010.

They also affirmed that despite problems this year with funding, sponsors have agreed to support the team at least until 2013. They also name Contador the leader of the team, without question, leaving hopefully soon-to-return Kazakhstan champion Vinokourov in a supporting role.

On the other hand, Contador has apparently been quite openly discussing offers he has received from teams such as Garmin-Slipstream, Katusha, Quick Step,and Caisse d’Epargne. So it sounds like he is planning to break his contract, leading many articles to claim he has no team or sponsor for 2010. On the other hand, the Velonews article states:

Contador talked about his options as he looks ahead to 2010 and beyond. He still has one year remaining on his contract with Astana, but he has indicated he’d like to move to a team that “knows the attitude to work for a leader.”

Which makes it sound like he is looking at 2011 and beyond. The fact that as of yet Contador has not released a statement countering Team Astana’s assertion that he will stay at Astana for 2010, also indicates that Alberto, like it or not, will be racing in the yellow and blue.