dimspace said:personally.. no...
we lose astana and gain shack... case of better the devil you know than the devil you dont... although we know them both which makes it doubly bad... Astana made their mistakes, and to be fair where doping, when everyone else was as well.. lets not think that astana and vino where the only ones at it.. they wherent.. but, considering all that has gone before they have to whiter than white now....
the ideal solution i guess would be no astana, or shack, but given the choice.. give me astana any day...
and for garmin, no... i actually maybe misguidedly have faith in garmins cleanliness.. i dont have that same faith in contador.. shatters a few illusions for me im afraid...
but given the choice between a new, hopefully clean, and financially stable astana bringing fresh young faces in (and hopefully not loads of ex dopers) v shack and just the same old guard dominating the politics of cycling, i pick astana....
i used to be a fan of lance, i still love his racing, but it just seems wherever him and JB go there is political wrangling and too much damn attention.... it wont change when they are gone, but at least it will be one bad apple gone from the basket and we can try and get back to talking cycling instead of F****** politics...
I think this is noble enough thought, but I don't think it reflects the situation at hand. Astana was essentially giving away the farm, with no manager and no signings. Today was the first day that anyone has any objective proof that they are serious about continuing in the sport. I don't know if it is vanity for Vino or to develop new talent . . . but to be honest I've never known them to do the latter, but the former is their raison d'etre.
I think cycling could do without what the Shack represents (rank opportunism and nothing more), but Astana hasn't demonstrated that it is anything more than the same side of the same coin.