180mmCrank said:
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Contador is the cycling equivalent of a genius in my opinion. I hope he finds a team that is more definitive in its support and worthy of his prodigious talent...
...The team on the other hand have in my opinion been somewhat more mixed in their support of their team leader. Some of the moves on the road well documented in this thread would leave any team leader asking a few questions about people’s priorities and personal agenda at the dinner table...
...How does anyone while a member of one team fighting for a podium place think its ok to announce your intention to launch a new team in the middle of the race?...
While I do not have an argument with many of your comments I do with these - there is more than a single individual race for GC I would not suggest that Contador is a cycling genius (perhaps not what you meant but it does sound that way). Certainly Contador is strong in the mountains and TT but he seems to fail to consider there is more than a single race on the program here.
Bruyneel was going for the first modern sweep of the podium and made that very clear to the team. Bruyneel holds the contracts with all of the riders so they actual work for him. That means that Bruyneel is Contador's boss. Bruyneel is also going for the overall team victory. None of this should have been a real issue for Contador since Bruyneel also said the team would ride for the strongest rider - which it has done.
As for the Radio Shack announcement - prior to Armstrong's announcement the team had announced it was kicking him and Bruyneel to the door over Vino - Astana raised the issue and Armstrong capitalized on it (although there must be a better brand out there for US cycling). In addition to that Contador was attempting to get a contact with another team just prior to the Tour (Garmin) which was certainly reasonable since at the time it was uncertain whether Astana would even be invited to the Tour.
Lastly, I do not believe that Contador will ride for anyone today other than himself - he has proven that no one other else matters to him (including the directions from his employer). Armstrong's place on the podium will rest on Armstrong's legs and mental toughness today which is how it should be IMO.