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I thought this was worthy of a fresh thread, so I copied my first post to Who Do You Trust - AC or LA and JB AKA Wheel Gate here. The big thing is that along with a lot of revisionist history, projecting his own actions onto Alberto, etc., Armstrong said that the story about Contador buying his own wheels was untrue, and suggested that anyone could call Trek & confirm. In a later response by the poor maligned writer from Marca, he said he had the story from others and had seen documentation of the purchase. Today Bruyneel had an interview in Marca. Here are excerpts via Google Translate:
There's still the unasked question of who was around looking at wheels and telling Contador that Lance's were better - Lance bragged a few days ago about how he will battle Contador with mental warfare, and that Bruyneel is an expert at that. Who could have seen the Astana equipment before the Tour and convinced Alberto the wheels were different, and what might their motivation have been? And why couldn't Trek have told Alberto that he already had the wheel he was about to pay for himself? If Johan was so involved with Contador during the Tour, how could he not have known until the following January that Alberto was buying his own wheel? Does anyone recall the recent Cycling News article with a title along the lines of "Bruyneel Proves Contador Wrong"? That was quoted everywhere, and along with the Armstrong quotes, led the world to believe that Alberto was a liar, and it made the rest of the nonsense and the "war of words" believable.
But the bottom line is, in that horrible interview that Lance gave, his one "fact" that he tied everything else to was that Alberto never bought his own TT wheels. Bruyneel just said that he did. Who do you trust?
http://www.marca.com/2010/01/23/ciclismo/1264276601.html- Since last year's Tour has been said and written about your relationship and the 'affair' of the wheels ... What happened exactly?
I, the statements contained in the press were taken with great caution, because many are misunderstood and others come from a mistranslation and was taken out of context. In the case of the wheels, Trek bought from a vendor a certain number of special wheels and one of those was for Alberto. However, someone around the saw that Lance was a different color because they were with the logos of Livestrong and Contador told they were better. So Albert spoke his own Trek and bought another.
There were no favoritism with Armstrong?
That's preposterous. To think that my interest or equipment was not the best material to give Alberto is incomprehensible. Was he talking about sabotage, and at this level is ridiculous to even think about it.
There's still the unasked question of who was around looking at wheels and telling Contador that Lance's were better - Lance bragged a few days ago about how he will battle Contador with mental warfare, and that Bruyneel is an expert at that. Who could have seen the Astana equipment before the Tour and convinced Alberto the wheels were different, and what might their motivation have been? And why couldn't Trek have told Alberto that he already had the wheel he was about to pay for himself? If Johan was so involved with Contador during the Tour, how could he not have known until the following January that Alberto was buying his own wheel? Does anyone recall the recent Cycling News article with a title along the lines of "Bruyneel Proves Contador Wrong"? That was quoted everywhere, and along with the Armstrong quotes, led the world to believe that Alberto was a liar, and it made the rest of the nonsense and the "war of words" believable.
But the bottom line is, in that horrible interview that Lance gave, his one "fact" that he tied everything else to was that Alberto never bought his own TT wheels. Bruyneel just said that he did. Who do you trust?
All the opinions can now apparently be settled with facts and documentation about the purchase of Time Trial wheels. The closest thing I've seen to a negative statement by Contador in months was that during the Tour he found out he wasn't getting the team's best wheels, so he had to buy his own.
Bruyneel just answered reader's questions for ElMundo, and the first question he addressed was the TT wheels. He said he had no idea where Alberto got that from, as all the riders, especially the leaders, had the same materials.
Part of Lance's interview is now out on Nieuwsblad, and he also addresses the wheel situation (via Google Translate).
http://www.nieuwsblad.be/sportwereld...leid=G8O2KA8D4
Quote:
“If you just the second time the Tour have won and you are the king of Spain, it is normal that all stories are all right. His career has barely begun. Let us talk again about fifteen years. When I subsequently the Spanish media during the Tour had to face, I fell from one surprise to another. We talked little about the atmosphere in the team, but they apparently do. If you read some Spanish sports daily Marca newspaper as distributed: so many dirty things, unbelievable. Complete bull****, pieces of mucus, fat lies. They said we were behind him during the Tour. Yeah. Recently he declared that he had no time trial wheels like me during the tour. Yeah. (Evil) First, this is not true. Secondly, it is easy to prove. You only have to grab the phone and calling into bicycle manufacturer Trek. I understand that the Spanish media after their heroic stand, but it was so untrue what was printed. Come on, at the end of the day as a journalist, you ****ing do proclaim the truth. ’ "
Alberto hasn't accused anyone of lying, but he's definitely now been accused. It's not coincidence that Bruyneel answered the question first, saying Contador had the story all wrong. I think our lives can be simplified. If Alberto did buy the tires, then Armstrong and Bruyneel are both liars who went out of their way to make someone else look bad, again. If they could do that, then every word they've said for the past six months can be questioned or doubted. If Contador made the story up, without actually attacking anyone while doing it, then he's a liar and we can question other things he's said.
Personally, as a former Armstrong fan who switched back to Contador, I believe things I've seen, and the words of people outside Astana. Like Gutierrez telling the story of how he tried to hand his friend Alberto a water bottle on the climb because he didn't have one, but Armstrong rode up and grabbed it first. I've seen a brilliant Graham Watson photo of that exact instant, so I don't believe the Spanish press made it up. But for other things, I'm willing to let it come down to who bought the wheel.
Here's Johan's version
http://www.elmundo.es/encuentros/inv.../2009/12/3976/