The news around Lance Armstrong's return to pro cycling keeps getting weirder.
I stumbled across a couple of doozies Saturday night.
You'll remember that cycling star Alberto Contador said that he'd want off Team Astana if Armstrong joined. Now disgraced cyclist Alexander Vinokourov (above), 35, says he wants back on Team Astana to race in 2009.
Businessmen in Khazakhstan built the Astana team around home country hero Vinokourov in 2006. In return he was caught for doping in the 2007 Tour de France and the entire team was tossed out. The team couldn't even return in 2008 with completely revamped management.
The Khazakhstan cycling federation only sanctioned Vinokourov for one year, but he said the heck with it and announced his retirement. Now he wants back on.
If he does want back on, manager Johan Bruyneel will have a team that includes Armstrong, Vinokourov, Contador, Levi Leipheimer and Andreas Kloden, for starters. Who's next. Jan Ullrich?
More at VeloNews.
Embarrassed the Tour?
Meanwhile, the new president Amaury Sports Organization, which owns the Tour de France, said this weekend:
“We can't say that he has not embarrassed the Tour de France, as he has had a quite a complicated history with it.”
That's Jean-Etienne Amaury quoted in L'Equipe, also owned by ASO.
Armstrong responded:
“I've stated clearly, my main objective in 2009 is to bring about global awareness of a disease that kills eight million people annually worldwide. Nobody ever said that I need the Tour de France in order to try and achieve this,” he said in a statement.
“It comes down to an issue of distraction — while I love the event and France's people, I cannot accept this sort of grandstanding which distracts from the Livestrong message that is urgently needed, and being sought out, in many other places around the world.”
Armstrong also repeated, for the umpteenth time, that he was never found to be guilty of doping.
More at Sportsnet.ca.
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