Lance to Join Astana Confirmed !!

[Apples]

American cyclist Lance Armstrong,
a seven-time Tour de France winner, was set to join Kazakhstan-based
professional team Astana, according to an official from the
country's cycling federation.
"On Wednesday Armstrong will announce his decision to join our
team at a news conference," federation deputy president Nikolai
Proskurin told AFP. "This case is a sealed one.
"I believe Armstrong will become a new sporting brand for
Kazakhstan," he added. "He's a great sportsman and courageous man
and he will exemplify Kazakhstan's rising talents in the best
possible way."
Proskurin also said that Armstrong would share the leadership in
the team with the current leader, Spaniard Alberto Contador, the
2007 Tour de France winner who has won the Tour of Spain and Giro

[Snoop Doug]

Hey ho. Personally.....I just wish he'd go off and try his hand at a.n.other sport and leave cycling alone. What about pro celebrity drug taking....? Allegedly of course, yawwwnnnn.

[quote]Jean-René Bernaudeau, manager of Bouygues Télécom, could not understand Armstrong's decision and even cast a new shadow of doubt on the way the American was going to try to achieve his goal. "I don't know what to think of it," he told L'Equipe. "In any case, this kind of come-back does not fit into my view of the sport. Bernard Hinault would never have done this... With Armstrong, you get the impression that everything is easy: he stops for three years and then comes back as if nothing happened. That's not how cycling works. Now, we can ask ourselves what the recipe is..."

[Apples]

Personally I can't see the problem if he comes back .

I cant believe he'd risk it if he wasn't gonna be :

a) Competitive

b) Clean

I think they are all scared he'll win !!

[Elliot M]

I think they are just playing to stereotype. Bernard Hinault would never have done this... [sorrowful shrug, shakes head, hums La Marsellaise]

[quote="Andrew G"][quote]Jean-René Bernaudeau, manager of Bouygues Télécom, could not understand Armstrong's decision and even cast a new shadow of doubt on the way the American was going to try to achieve his goal. "I don't know what to think of it," he told L'Equipe. "In any case, this kind of come-back does not fit into my view of the sport. Bernard Hinault would never have done this... With Armstrong, you get the impression that everything is easy: he stops for three years and then comes back as if nothing happened. That's not how cycling works. Now, we can ask ourselves what the recipe is..."

[mrP(Boonen)VT]

I'm not a Lance fan at all, but surely we have to let go what's gone before, and accept that the current testing regime is as good as it gets, and if he rides (wins?) and doesn't fail then we have to (boringly) accept it

[Dombo]

I believe Vinokourov was made a Colonel in the Kazakhstan army for getting a podium spot one year.

If Armstrong wins can we expect a similar reward, Field Marshal perhaps; his own tank regiment? The Order of Borat?

How would that play with the voters should he run for Texas governorship?

[Snoop Doug]

[quote="Dombo"]The Order of Borat?

[mrP(Boonen)VT]

wasn't that mountain bike race he did a UCI sanctioned event?

[Grahame]

[quote="mrP(Boonen)VT"]wasn't that mountain bike race he did a UCI sanctioned event?

[mrP(Boonen)VT]

I guess that's a "NO" then

Guru p