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Astana gets Vuelta nod

ire

ire

Turbo Monkey
Aug 6, 2007
6,196
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http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2008/apr08/apr30news

The Astana team will be allowed to contest this year's Vuelta a España, the organiser Unipublic announced Tuesday. After being refused entry to the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia, the team of the 2007 Tour de France winner Alberto Contador was expecting to target the Vuelta in the latter part of the season. The team had received a word of support from the Spanish Tour director Victor Cordero in February, but had to wait for today's official invitation to be certain.

Of the 18 ProTour teams, only Team High Road is not on the list, having withdrawn its application for the race. Three wild card teams were invited, making a total of 20 teams for this year's edition. The Spanish Karpin Galicia team of the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey winner David Garcia Dapena earned a nod, as did the Andalucía - Cajasur team of sprinter Francisco Ventoso, a former Vuelta stage winner. The Tinkoff Credit Systems team rounds out the roster.

The Unipublic statement said that 33 teams had requested to be included in the 2008 edition and that the teams which were chosen "meet the necessary requirements in terms of ethics, image and administrative matters" and are categorized by the UCI as "wild card" teams – a label which requires teams to adhere to the biological passport program and other considerations.

Unipublic also explained that, due to limits on hotel capacities in some host towns and the conditions of some roads, the roster had to be limited to 20 teams.

Teams for 2008 Vuelta a España
AG2R - La Mondiale
Andalucía-Cajasur*
Astana
Bouygues Telecom
Caisse d'Epargne
Cofidis, Credit Par Telephone
Crédit Agricole
Euskaltel - Euskadi
Française Des Jeux
Gerolsteiner
Karpin Galicia*
Lampre
Liquigas
Quick Step
Rabobank
Saunier Duval - Scott
Silence-Lotto
Tinkoff Credit Systems*
Team CSC
Team Milram

* indicates wild card teams
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ire

ire

Turbo Monkey
Aug 6, 2007
6,196
4
and on another note, Cadel gets the time trial win he deserved

Vino stripped of Tour stage wins, Kirchen and Evans named winners
By Susan Westemeyer


Alexander Vinokourov is no longer the winner of stages 13 and 15 of the 2007 Tour de France. Following his suspension in response to blood-doping charges, his name has been removed from the records and the wins have been awarded to Kim Kirchen of Team High Road (formerly T-Mobile Team) and Cadel Evans of Silence-Lotto (formerly Predictor-Lotto).

"Kim Kirchen and Cadel Evans have been informed by UCI, with two letters on April 8 and 9, that following the disqualification of Alexander Vinokourov they have been declared as winners of the 15th and the 13th stages of the 2007 Tour de France," UCI spokesman Enrico Carpani told Cyclingnews Tuesday.

The Luxembourg Sports Press Association released the e-mail letter to Kirchen, which read, "Following the suspension of Alexandre Vinokourov pursuant to an Anti-Doping Rule violation during the 2007 Tour de France I am writing to congratulate you on winning stage 15 of that event. Our records have been amended accordingly."

In the stage 15, from Foix to Loudenvielle, Kirchen finished second, 51 seconds behind Vinokourov. Stage 13 was a time trial, 54 km with start and finish in Albi, and the Kazakh rider finished an astonishing 1.14 ahead of Evans.

It was announced on July 25 that Vinokourov had tested positive after the time trial. Team Astana withdrew from the Tour and the rider was eventually given a one-year suspension.

Neither Kirchen nor Evans nor their teams responded to Cyclingnews' request for a comment.
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ire

ire

Turbo Monkey
Aug 6, 2007
6,196
4
splat said:
But makes it so ANti-climatic to be awarded the win 9 months later
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Yeah I know.....at least Contador got to stand on the top step in Paris, he didn't have to wait like Evans and Kirchen. The big problem is the advertising the sponsor missed out on
 
ire

ire

Turbo Monkey
Aug 6, 2007
6,196
4
maddog17 said:
why should the Giro care what the TdF does!!?? i'm starting to get a bit tired of these people suddenly loosing their sacks because of what the TdF does.
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ASO and RCS tend to run together, the Vuelta organizers are letting Astana in becuase Contador is extremely popular in Spain. ASO and RCS collaborate on their decisions so they can leverage their popular, and classic, races against the UCI to get their way......its all political
 
maddog17

maddog17

Turbo Monkey
Jan 20, 2008
2,817
106
Methuen, Mass. U.S.A.
ire said:
ASO and RCS tend to run together, the Vuelta organizers are letting Astana in becuase Contador is extremely popular in Spain. ASO and RCS collaborate on their decisions so they can leverage their popular, and classic, races against the UCI to get their way......its all political
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more reason to hate them for making me suffer not watching the best teams race the biggest races.
 
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