Contador claims team lead. Armstrong takes back seat. Will he join list of sport's greatest sidekicks?
From ESPN Page 2MJ and Scottie. Shaq and Kobe (Penny, Wade, LeBron). Now cycling has Alberto and Lance.
Defending Tour de France champion Alberto Contador will return to the 2009 Tour as the team leader of cycling powerhouse Astana, the team announced Thursday.
Defending Tour de France champion Alberto Contador will return to the 2009 Tour as the team leader of cycling powerhouse Astana, the team announced Thursday.
Contador, who threatened to quit the team after seven-time champion Lance Armstrong joined Astana for his comeback Tour, has aired his displeasure at having to race with Armstrong. “I think I’ve earned the right to be the leader of a team without having to fight for it,” he said. “And with Armstrong, there could be difficult situations in which the team would put him first and that would harm me.”
The 2009 Tour, which will have its Grand Depart on July 4 at the Rock in Monaco, will put to test how this new team buildup will affect the performance of the elite Team Astana.
Team Astana will also have two big names in its roster that includes Armstrong’s fellow American Levi Leipheimer and German Andreas Kloeden. Leipheimer and Kloeden have both been podium finishers in last year’s Tour. With the addition of Armstrong, Team Astana will have probably the most star-studded domestiques to help the team leader.
Domestiques, or “support riders,” are traditionally team members who cannot be expected to win the Yellow Jersey, but can be relied on to “shield the team leader from the winds in the flats, escort him up mountain climbs, or even fetch water bottles from team cars trailing the racers.” Come July 4, this will be the new role that Lance Armstrong will have to play.
To be sure, it is an unfamiliar role for the American, who is now 37 and coming off a four-year retirement from professional cycling. Armstrong eased back to cycling beginning late last year, and competed in the Vuelta where he figured in a crash and suffered a collarbone injury. He came back from surgery to race in Giro and finished 12th.
Astana coach Johan Bruyneel, who has been with Armstrong in all his seven Tour de France championships, said he was very happy with the Texan's form in his comeback season after three years of retirement, the Associated Press reports. "I know he is extremely motivated for the Tour de France," he added.
However, it remains to be seen whether Armstrong is prepared to compromise his own chances of adding to his record seven victories. With Contador as the leader of the team, it would be interesting to watch how Team Astana will fare in the Tour de France.
Bruyneel said Contador "has worked very hard, earning the right to represent our team as the leader this July.” But although Armstrong will be given a supporting role at Team Astana, anything could happen.
Armstrong posted on his Twitter page Thursday that “This is not 2004 or 2005. I'm not the leader of the team.” And that he is not. We’ll find out for sure on July 4.
