Astana Team Thread

Ok... Here is the team jersey if anyone wants to pledge their allegiance to the team!!

Also Im attaching to this post the excel spreadsheet for tracking to make work easy for your nominated team leader!!!

 Best of Luck!!

don't forget your halloumi:

Astana

Monday July 2, 2007

Guardian

The capital of Kazakhstan. The sponsor is a consortium of mainly oil companies put together by the government of the ex-Soviet state. Fondly and in no way patronisingly referred to as Team Borat.

Tour heritage

First appearance. They were absentees last year because several riders had connections to Puerto; once they'd been told to leave, the team did not have the minimum number required to race.

Past controversies

Astana have never fallen foul of the police or testers, but their Giro d'Italia leader Eddy Mazzoleni is currently getting heat from an oil-for-drugs investigation. Nothing has been proved.

In the coffers

£8.1m and, with £1m more, they'd have enough budget to film Borat II if they wanted to, which they probably wouldn't.

The boss

Belgian star (stop laughing) Walter Godefroot, who enjoyed classics success in the 70s, then nurtured Bjarne Riis and Jan Ullrich in the 90s.

Team leader

Laconic Alexandr Vinokourov never uses three words where one will do but, as he's the best instinctive racer with a subliminal awareness for the right moment to attack, and this is Le Tour and not an episode of Parkinson, who cares? Big Al shook Lance Armstrong in 2003 and won well in the 2006 Vuelta; at 33 he feels this is his last tilt at the Tour. He starts as favourite.

Wild man of the saddle

Andreas Kloden is the No2 to Vino, a conservative time-triallist but lacking in consistency. He was second in 2004, flopped in 2005, was third in 2006 to Floyd Landis (and is in contention for second depending on Landis's doping case) and left T-Mobile after a hissy fit over salary and status. The best stage racer of the spring, which bodes well here, but he's still No2.

They'll be happy with . . .

Overall victory for Vino or Klodi.

Fans will paint on the road

"Astana: pushbike heavyweights for make benefit of glorious Kazakh oil and railway concerns"; "In Vino veritas"

William Fotheringham predicts

Overall win is possible but, if they are as dominant as in last year's Vuelta, questions will be asked.

If they were cheese... Halloumi

Unlikely sounding concoction but has a fashionable following among those in the know. Recently arrived on the scene from pretty much nowhere and looks likely to prove surprisingly tough and durable. Won't fall apart and can be expected to keep its shape however hot things get.

Based Les Geneveys-sur-Coffrane, Switz

Bike BMC frame, Easton wheels

Jerseys Craft

Team leader Alexandr Vinokourov (Kaz, age 33. 5 Tours, 3 stage wins. Best 3rd, 2003)

Climbers Maxim Iglingskiy (Kaz, 26), José Antonio Redondo (Sp, 22)

Sprinters Sergei Ivanov (Rus, 32), René Haselbacher (Aut, 29)

Time-triallists

Benoît Joachim (Lux, 31), Koen de Kort (Neth, 24)

Puncheurs

Andrei Kashechkin (Kaz, 26), Matthias Kessler (Ger, 28), Andreas Kloden (Ger, 32), Guennadi Mikjaolov (Rus, 33)

Team manager Walter Godefroot

Team founded 2006

Tours de France entered 0

Stage wins

King of Mountains

2006 best n/a

2006 stage wins n/a

ProTour ranking 10th (wild-card entrant)

Website www.team-astana.eu

My name is Matt...training for an ironman this years tour de France will be a training race for my Ironman this August.

I am doing 15 stages.

Astana baby lets go....We are going to kick A$$!

Name's Andy. Think I signed up for 12 stages.

Training for an IM at the end of September. Only 2 1/2 months to go.

On to the TDF challenge. I plan on riding Saturday and Sunday this weekend. What do you guys have planned?

Edited by Tri3 2007-07-05 4:16 PM

(Litespeed.jpg)

Lucky me ona team of bad boys !!

This is my first year of triathlon, my first race was a couple weeks ago, and my last of the season is a 1/2 IM distance on Sept 1.

I ride a yellow road bike, one of our team colors.

I have only 8 rides scheduled during the tour, one is a race on July 15, and one will be a 75 mile ride. 

Looking forward to team Astana winning this challenge !!!

Hey Astana - in honour of the Tour kicking off in 24 hours I thought i would give you a bit of Astana riders info, pics etc in the spirit of representing the team!!!

The finalised team line up for Astana (at this stage...) is:

Antonio Colom (ESP) first time participation

Maxim Iglinskiy (KAZ) 3rd participation

Sergueï Ivanov (RUS) 6th participation, winner of one stage in 2001 at Aix-les-Bains

Andrej Kashechkin (KAZ) 2nd participation, 19th in 2005

Andreas Klöden (GER) 5th participation, 2nd in 2004 and 3rd (?) in 2006

Daniel Navarro (ESP) first time participation

Gregory Rast (SUI) first time participation

Paolo Savoldelli (ITA) 6th participation, winner of two stages in 2005 at Blois and at Revel

Alexander Vinokourov (KAZ) 6th participation, 3rd in 2003, winner of one stage in 2003 at Gap and of two stages in 2005 at Briançon and at Paris

The official team leader is Vinokourov who has just been so exciting to watch in recent years. He attacks when no one else will, is relentless, has great heart and never gives up!

He won the Vuelta (Tour of Spain) in 2006 after being unable to ride the Tour in 2006 due to a lack of team members. He has said in numerous interviews in the lead up to the Tour how disappointed he was last year, this year he has a point to prove, the talent, determination and passion to win PLUS he is one of the most loved cyclists in the peloton!!

Hope this gets you all pumped about your pro team... Prologue starts in 24 hours

Im gonna be watching the Tour live every night (ts about 10p - 2/3am here) so will keep you posted on how he, and the team goes (assuming you are all interested!!!)

Have a great challenge!!!!

Cat

While you sissies were sleeping, looks like someone from barlo rode by and took a quick swim in your kiddie pool...

Oh, and by the way...

(good luck  getting your a$$ kicked in the challenge everyone).

Its addictive.... I LOVE it too (obviously I guess from this challenge)

 In Australia we have the Tour live on free to air tv... very lucky Just a pity about the time of night!!!