Johan is a loyal Armstrong guy so you know where he's going to come down between the two. And I agree that the mind games have begun -- they'll need every game they've got to beat Contador if he riders for Caisse.
But I also think Bruyneel is annoyed that Alberto hasn't given him enough credit for building his career and making the best use of Alberto's talent. But hey, Contador is young and a superstar, things get warped and he's annoyed Johan didn't support him more instead of Lance.
For me, Alberto is just young, period. On the plus side, he handled the incredible stress of the tour with Armstrong and still won. That says plenty about his mental strength and confidence. A lot of guys would have cracked. But he still has to mature and having his brother do everything is questionable and maybe unprofessional. We'll see.
He's incredibly lucky Astana screwed their paperwork up so badly that he's free to go. That was a negative sign -- he didn't do much to decide his own fate even as Lance and Bruyneel stripped his car of parts. But Lance had plenty of luck in the tour. Maybe Alberto is not only great but lucky, too.
Twisted Spoke
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