Astana Licence to be withdrawn?

[TheGreenMonkey]

Astana Cataldo seems stronger than Sky Cataldo

 

[hfer07]

No doubt that Astana is looking super strong in this Giro- BUT It seems that way since all the other teams aren't working as hard as they are - SKY is invisible right now- same goes to Etixx - Tinkoff is doing what is necessary to protect the Maglia Rosa- they haven't really set up hard paces or close down gaps at all- Overall we have to see if Astana will keep the batteries running in the last week, which is the hardest- then we can speculate more about it-not now

 

[the sceptic]

Re:

There is evidence for a team wide program at Astana + the ridiculous Giro performance. To bad italian authorities do not apply their laws , but i guess if Spain covers top athletes (Fuente) then Italy doing the same is no surprise (see also calcio doping, buried).

no there isn't. An independent investigation said everything is fine and Astana have learned their lesson, so there is no evidence against any of these riders in the giro. but strangely all skyfans seem to think Astana is doping even though they haven't even reached the level of sky in 2012 yet.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

SkyTears is not the first nor will they be the last to do this, but I feel the need to be pedantic on something that bugs me because it has become an error constantly repeated on a level of "Euskatel" and "Kreuzinger" during Phil & Paul's worst periods, but just for clarity:

Fuente: legendary climber from the 70s
Fuentes: doping doctor in Operación Puerto

 

[Inquitus]

Re: Re:

There is evidence for a team wide program at Astana + the ridiculous Giro performance. To bad italian authorities do not apply their laws , but i guess if Spain covers top athletes (Fuente) then Italy doing the same is no surprise (see also calcio doping, buried).

no there isn't. An independent investigation said everything is fine and Astana have learned their lesson, so there is no evidence against any of these riders in the giro. but strangely all skyfans seem to think Astana is doping even though they haven't even reached the level of sky in 2012 yet.

There's plenty of evidence Astani are dirty, the number of riders on their WT and Pro-Conti teams who tested positive last year, the fact Kreuzinger is going to get banned for Blood Passport violations, and that's ignoring the anecdotal, Vino, his track record, the teams associations with Ferrari....Combine that with them appearing to have 7 of the 10 best climbers in the world at the moment and it doesn't take alot to be suspicious.

 

[bigcog]

Re:

Astana Cataldo seems stronger than Sky Cataldo

Yep he certainly does. Astana's performance so far in the Giro is just plain ridiculous. The GT equivalent of Gewiss-Ballan

 

[rainman]

Re:

Astana Cataldo seems stronger than Sky Cataldo

Marginal gains to massive gains

 

[Jagartrott]

Anyone remember Quickstep Cataldo?
Seems Uran should change teams. He'd smash GTs left and right.

 

[zlev11]

Re:

Anyone remember Quickstep Cataldo?
Seems Uran should change teams. He'd smash GTs left and right.

what about Sky Cataldo? he couldn't even win from a breakaway last year, now he's the 5th best climber in the entire race.

 

[GuyIncognito]

Re:

double post

 

[GuyIncognito]

Re:

an error constantly repeated on a level of "Euskatel" and "Kreuzinger"

2 posts later

Kreuzinger

I laughed.

Anyway, changing subject, did anyone hear about Griepel signing for GreenAge?
I wonder where Kwiatowski will go. Maybe to Moviestar

 

[May0maniac]

Re: Re:

Anyone remember Quickstep Cataldo?
Seems Uran should change teams. He'd smash GTs left and right.

what about Sky Cataldo? he couldn't even win from a breakaway last year, now he's the 5th best climber in the entire race.

Last year he had a pretty bad crash at the start of the giro and underperformed durning the whole race, but Sky Cataldo was a very strange rider, his best stage race with Sky was last year's Coppi e Bartali and then you have that Vuelta stage when he was setting a pace that was so high that Froome almost got dropped...

 

[movingtarget]

What are they feeding Landa ? I want some of that.

 

[the sceptic]

astana doing this is actually very bad for the UCI right? this situation is like the opposite of 2012 sky. I don't see the UCI making much profit off this since it's impossible to spin this in a positive cleans light and there won't be a horde of new italian/russian fans to exploit.

seems insane by astana to go full *** when the UCI basically told them "ok you can ride, but please tone it down a bit". Probably a positive test coming up soon.

 

[Catwhoorg]

Or maybe 5-6. Why not get the whole domestique train in one go.

Prove its teamwide and be rid of them

 

[Taxus4a]

Re: Re:

There is evidence for a team wide program at Astana + the ridiculous Giro performance. To bad italian authorities do not apply their laws , but i guess if Spain covers top athletes (Fuente) then Italy doing the same is no surprise (see also calcio doping, buried).

no there isn't. An independent investigation said everything is fine and Astana have learned their lesson, so there is no evidence against any of these riders in the giro. but strangely all skyfans seem to think Astana is doping even though they haven't even reached the level of sky in 2012 yet.

There's plenty of evidence Astani are dirty, the number of riders on their WT and Pro-Conti teams who tested positive last year, the fact Kreuzinger is going to get banned for Blood Passport violations, and that's ignoring the anecdotal, Vino, his track record, the teams associations with Ferrari....Combine that with them appearing to have 7 of the 10 best climbers in the world at the moment and it doesn't take alot to be suspicious.

Maybe you are right, but they have as much 3 of the best 1O climbers of the world.

At the end of the Giro, people as Nieve and Koning will be more important than Cataldo and Kangert.

of course Astana is a team with doping issues, in thye past an in the new era, but rght now there is a big eye on them.

 

[Taxus4a]

Re: Re:

Astana Cataldo seems stronger than Sky Cataldo

Yep he certainly does. Astana's performance so far in the Giro is just plain ridiculous. The GT equivalent of Gewiss-Ballan

He was better or at least more promising before SKY.

But most of riders than leave SKY are the same or better than in SKY, with some exceptions.

 

[Benotti69]

It is ok, Walsh doesn't believe Astana are clean and he doesn't enjoy watching their performance at Il Giro.

" I try to say nothing because I don't truly know but I don't believe and I can't enjoy."

Someone tell him they are merely doing a Sky 2012-2013................

 

[rainman]

Re:

It is ok, Walsh doesn't believe Astana are clean and he doesn't enjoy watching their performance at Il Giro.

" I try to say nothing because I don't truly know but I don't believe and I can't enjoy."

Someone tell him they are merely doing a Sky 2012-2013................

Some investigative journo. He should have pretended to still be the bucket and spade tourist of 2013, he might have snagged an invite to hang out for the TDF in the Astana team bus. That would have guaranteed lols at least.

 

[BigMac]

Half the contenders dropped and Astana with a horde around Aru. Uhm uhm, right.

 

[classicomano]

Yeah this is pure teamwide doping going on. Didnt think id ever see that in cycling again, but here it is.

Vino really really REALLY dont give a ***.

 

[the sceptic]

Re:

Yeah this is pure teamwide doping going on. Didnt think id ever see that in cycling again, but here it is.

Vino really really REALLY dont give a ****.

you forgot about 2012 already?

 

[hrotha]

Half the contenders dropped out because they sucked; the group is still quite large.

 

[BigMac]

Re:

Half the contenders dropped out because they sucked; the group is still quite large.

Still, then, there are 6 Astanas better than half the contenders.

 

[hrotha]

Re: Re:

Half the contenders dropped out because they sucked; the group is still quite large.

Still, then, there are 6 Astanas better than half the contenders.

Which means zilch when we hadn't had any real mountains to test whether those contenders were real.

We might well see 6 Astanas in a group of 15, but that hasn't happened yet.