Contador takes overall win at of Tour of Algarve

Alberto Contador’s time trial bike drama didn’t seem to bother him today in stage 5′s time trial. He took second in the stage and secured his overall victory in the Tour of the Algarve. Luis León Sánchez won the stage with a time of 21 minutes, 32 seconds. Contador was 13 behind. The time bike [...]

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Overflowing Thermos: Team Type 1 Camp, Olympics, Floyd Landis, Tiger Woods and Alberto Contador

It’s been a full week for me and I’ve been pulled in numerous directions. Of course we have the Olympics in full swing, which has kept me captivated during prime time, the Team Type 1 training camp and banging out interviews with their riders, the Volta Algarve showing how well everyone’s off-season training is progressing, [...]

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SRAM partners with Team Astana (press release)

 Since 2008, SRAM has partnered with Team Astana and their star rider Alberto Contador to clinch the three Grand Tours: The Giro d’Italia, the Vuelta Espana and the Tour de France. For 2010, SRAM has renewed its agreement with Team Astana and will continue as offi cial drivetrain supplier. Tour de France winner, Alberto [...]

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Team Sky’s kit and other disasters

Is 2010 going to be the year of bad kits? RadioShack needs a new design, Astana is still using poor color combinations and Sky’s is as creative as a middle school art project. What is going on out there? Is this a sign that everyone, even team staff, is racing clean and are now boring?

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Astana will ride Specialized in ’10

It’s official— after ALBERTO CONTADOR requested the support of Specialized Bicycles in his bid to win his third Tour de France, the California brand will be the complete bike sponsor for Team Astana in 2010.

In a video conference with Specialized Founder and President, Mike Sinyard, Contador said, “I am very excited. I want to have the best bike. It is very important to have the best if you want to win the Tour de France. This is why I made it a requirement to have Specialized as the team bike for my return to Astana.”

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Race radio ban

I wrote this piece just before the Tour de France for the Astana website in response to the organizer’s ban on race radios in two stages. Now that the topic has resurfaced as the UCI is proposing phasing out two-way race radios. While there hasn’t been a time line established when exactly the radios will [...]

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Riding with Levi

“Do you want to ride with Levi?” It was Astana’s media relations guy asking me what I assumed was a rhetorical question. At the time Levi Leipheimer was the two time winner of the upcoming Tour of California, a Grand Tour podium finisher, and a decent enough guy. All I had to do was be [...]

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The Latest Equipment

The Tour de France is only behind the Olympics and World Cup soccer in the terms of eyeballs watching. So the Tour has become a showcase for sponsors to unveil new products. All the big teams are either on new bikes, aero clothing, or new components and the Astana team is no different. Behind the [...]

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The Race Radio Debate

Race radios are a relatively new piece of equipment in a sport that is over a hundred years old. The radio was first introduced by the Motorola team because, well, the title sponsor produced them. But beyond the obvious sponsorship tie-in the radios allowed the director in the team car to point out road hazards [...]

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Looking at the Three Grand Tours

If you follow competitive cycling you know that every July is the equivalent of the Super Bowl,World Series and Wimbledon all wrapped into one swirling ball of chaos, athleticism, and at times controversy. Of course I’m talking about the Tour de France. The Tour de France is just one of the triumvirate called the Grand [...]

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