During the 2009 Tour de France, it was no secret that there was no love lost between Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador. While designated "co-leaders" of the Astana team, it was evident from the beginning that Armstrong fully intended to throw down a challenge to Contador, recent winner of all three grand tours. It wasn't until Contador, against team orders, demonstrated his superiority in the mountains that Lance accepted a support role, apparently in tacit admission that he couldn't quite hang with Contador and the Schleck brothers, Andy and Frank.
After the final awards ceremony, Contador could hardly wait to tell the world about his disdain for Armstrong, despite Lance's having guarded his back up several Alpine climbs. Lance praised Contador's prowess, even to the point of claiming that Contador would have beaten him in at least three of his tour victories. Contador hardly replied in kind. "My relationship with Lance Armstrong is non-existent," Contador said in a post-race interview."Even if he is a great champion, I have never had admiration for him and I never will."
There had already been disturbing developments within the team, even as the Spring and Summer campaigns unfolded. The backers were determined that Alexander Vinokourov, coming off a two year suspension for blood doping, be reinstated. They announced to the press that Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel, team manager, and others in their camp would likely be fired, and that the team would be reconstituted with Spanish riders and Vinokourov in support of Contador. Bruyneel turned in his resignation, effective at the end of the year. Lance didn't bother to attend the team's victory dinner after the Tour de France.
Trouble in Team Astana
How did it all go so wrong for Astana? The answers go back to the way in which the team began.
Team Astana arose from the ashes of Team Liberty Seguros, whose history was blighted with repeated episodes of drug use. Liberty Seguros finally lost its sponsorship in 2006 when multiple members were implicated in the infamous "Puerto" incident, which named many of the world's top cyclists in a performance-enhancing drug scandal.
A coalition of state-owned companies from Kazakhstan, team leader Vinokourov's home country, stepped in and assumed sponsorship of the floundering team, naming it Astana after Kazakhstan's capital city. Later that year, Vinokourov won the Vuelta a Espana for his new team.
In the first half of 2007, repeated drug violations by prominent riders plagued the team, culminating in Vinokourov himself testing positive after winning a Tour de France time trial. The team was "asked to leave" the Tour, its management team was fired, and many of its riders were dismissed.
Meanwhile, Back at Team Discovery. . .
. . . Lance Armstrong had retired. The Discovery Channel, which had sponsored the Armstrong/Bruyneel team since 2004, had fulfilled its original commitment and pulled out. Over those years, one team after another had been taken down by drugging revelations, and the corporate climate was not very hospitable to cycling.
Lance, the advertising meal ticket, wasn't going to be around. In fact, Johan Bruyneel found it impossible to sign another sponsor, and the backers of Team Discovery announced that it would disband. Bruyneel was unemployed, his all-star riders scattered to the winds.
But Then. . .
. . .Bruyneel was hired to resurrect Team Astana. Given a blank check, Bruyneel brought in many of his riders from Team Discovery, keeping a few strong riders from the old Astana team. Alberto Contador came along, who had ridden with Vinokourov on the Liberty Seguras team.
In this incarnation, Astana went on to win the Giro d'Italia (on about two weeks' notice) and the Vuelta a Espana. Bruyneel had created another powerhouse, even stronger possibly than the Discovery Team. And in Contador, he had found a "replacement" for Lance.
Except that...
. . . Lance un-retired. It is said that, after finishing second in the 2008 Leadville 100, a grueling hundred-mile mountain bike race, Lance asked himself, "Why am I retired?" Whatever the reason, late in 2008, Armstrong announced that he had decided to return to the ranks of pro cycling.
To cycling fans, it is nigh on impossible to imagine Lance Armstrong riding for anyone but Johan Bruyneel. "There's only one Bruyneel," Lance has said. So of course, it was only a matter of time before Lance was invited (or invited himself) to race on the Astana squad. Not only was Bruyneel in charge, but the team rides Trek bicycles, and Lance is known to have major pull around the halls of Trek.
For a few months, Lance mouthed platitudes. He didn't care about winning. He was riding to raise cancer awareness. He would do what was best for the team. But as the '09 Tour unfolded, it was clear that Lance was there to win, if he could. As it turns out, he finished third, which would be a prodigious accomplishment for any 37-year-old athlete not named Armstrong. Of that performance, Lance says only "It was OK" and "Probably a good lesson for my kids, that their dad can lose and still be happy" and "I'll be better next year."
The Future of Team Astana
"The team is finished," Johan Bruyneel has said. The sponsors have said Alexander Vinokourov will return in support of Alberto Contador. Contador says he will wait before committing to Astana in the future. Bruyneel has given his notice; what remains to be seen is whether the team can hang together to fulfill its commitments for the end of 2009.
Lance Armstrong has announced the formation of an American-based Radio Shack team for 2010. (He had dinner in Paris with the new sponsors in lieu of the Astana celebration party). It's a fairly sure bet that Johan Bruyneel will be managing that team, and that most of the Lance-camp riders from Astana will be on it.
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