Astana, RadioShack, and reality (Part 1 of 3)

When I left, Astana was on the verge of winning the top two places in the 2008 Vuelta a España behind Alberto Contador and Levi Leipheimer. Leipheimer won the last time trial, and so the race ended with Contador some 30 seconds ahead of Leipheimer, making Leipheimer the first American to ever place second in the Vuelta (and he's still the only American to place third), but continuing the Vuelta as the one Grand Tour that no American has ever won.

Contador, meanwhile, became the fifth person and first Spaniard to win all three Grand Tours, joining Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault of France, Eddy Merckx of Belgium and Felice Gimondi of Italy. But the cauldron was starting to bubble, because seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong decided that he wanted to unretire after three years away from the sport, while Kazakhstan's Alexandre Vinokourov had completed one year of his two-year suspension from professional cycling.

Both of these would have imiplications for Astana. Armstrong wanted to ride for Bruyneel again, since he was the one who was largely responsible for Bruyneel becoming the DS for U.S. Postal Service back in 1998/99. Vinokourov wanted to take Astana back over, despite the fact that Bruyneel has two years to run on his contract with the team.

Of course, Astana couldn't afford Armstrong, with the salsries that the team was already paying to Grand Tour winner Contador, Grand Tour runners-up Leipheimer and Andreas Klöden, and all of the other star support riders on the team. But Armstrong agreed to ride for free, although the team had to provide services for him -- in return for which, he got to keep the appearance money provided to him by race promoters who badly wanted him at their races (which even included one of the Grand Tours: the Giro d'Italia).

With Contador, Armstrong, Leipheimer, Klöden, Slovenian champion Janez Brajkovič, Ukranian Yaroslav Popovich, Portuguese champion Sergio Paulinho, Lithuanian champion Tomas Vaitkus, all of whom except Klöden had ridden for Discovery Channel, plus American Chris Horner, Spaniard Haimar Zubeldia and several other talented domestiques, Astana put together the best team since the old La Vie Claire team of 1986 (with Hinault, Greg LeMond, Andy Hampsten, Niki Rutimann, Jean-François Bernard and Steve Bauer, among others, all six of whom placed in the top 25 of the 1986 Tour de France).

Of course, that old La Vie Claire team in 1985 and 1986 was also the source of the nastiest intrasquad battle ever seen in cycling, with the North Americans (LeMond, Hampsten and Bauer) on one side and the Europeans on the other. And everybody was looking for the same from Astana. Were they disappointed? See Part 2.