I really am struggling to find sources of news about pro cycling that I can trust. Part of the wheel gate thing is simple logic. Contador told La Gazzetta dello Sport that it happened. The stories about the Tour de France in the Spanish media made Armstrong look like, well, like Armstrong. So he invited a reporter to sunny California, to a celebrity neighborhood (the reporter gushed about it at the start of the printed interview). He said a lot of nonsense. Like if he were Alberto, he would have done anything to keep his teammates, how generous he was with them, then bragged about how many million dollars he got for each Tour win. (In real life, Contador wanted to leave Astana and wasn't definitely on the team until December. The President of Kazakhstan announced before the Tour that they wanted to build a team without Armstrong and Bruyneel, composed of Spanish and Kazakh riders, and centered around Contador. You'll notice that even though other top riders had 2010 contracts, the only one besides Alberto they fought to keep was Zubeldia.)
Anyway, Lance said all sorts of things, but he tried to include one thing that sounded like a fact to make the rest sound plausible - he said that Contador didn't buy his own time trial wheel, it was nonsense, and said that people could call Trek for the truth. Apparently know one did, and I think it was bravado that made him say it. Bruyneel told the press that all riders had the same materials, especially the leaders (I don't know how the especially works), and that he didn't know where Alberto got the idea. That was enough confirmation for lazy journos - Contador and the Spanish press were branded liars, don't believe anything they said about team cars or anything else.
But now Bruyneel has said that Contador DID buy a rear Time Trial wheel as he had said. He wants us to believe that Alberto's personal mechanic, a thirty year veteran, got confused by wheel colors). You can read a bit about Munoz at the Tour here:
http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/pro-bike-alberto-contadors-astana-trek-series-6-madone-22518
1. Contador says he bought the wheel.
2. Bruyneel says Contador bought the wheel.
3. Lance says Contador made the whole thing up & is a liar.
No matter what your leanings, Armstrong & Bruyneel say the exact opposite and can't both be right.
When the Bruyneel interview came out, I sent the link to a number of journos on twitter. Velonation published the interview without judgment. A writer for Pez sent me a condescending tweet saying it doesn't really "prove" anything. I haven't seen the story anywhere else.
This morning I continued my quest to find an honest man. I sent the general story and links to El Pais and AS.com, suggesting all of Spanish media who wrote about the Tour were called liars, and might want to stand together. I sent the same to Le Monde and L'Equipe, but those have to work their way through channels, so I dunno.
Since the exclusive interview that was quoted around the world started in Telegraaf and Nieuwsblad, I suggested they might want to clean up the mess they helped make. I contacted the Telegraaf Sports Editor through their internal system, and e-mailed the Sports Editor and all three cycling reporters at Nieuwsblad. See if that story appears anywhere. I'm going to ignore all things cycling for at least a week. And if the person who tried to intimidate me into shutting up on twitter reads this, it all, including this, took up less than an hour of my day. Threatening to report me to the state unemployment agency for reading news and sending 140 character tweets is a bit lame.