Tour Teams Announced---Caution: SPOILER!

[BumbleBeeDave]

Vaughters and the Metrosexu--er, I mean Clipstream Chipotle, are in! Woo-Hoo!

BBD

=======================

The teams:

France: AG2R, Agritubel (Continental Pro), Bouygues Telecom, Cofidis,
Credit Agricole, Francaise des Jeux

Spain: Caisse d'Epargne, Euskaltel, Saunier Duval

Germany: Gerolsteiner, Milram

Belgium: Quick Step, Silence

United States: High Road, Slipstream (Continental Pro)

Italy: Lampre, Liquigas

Denmark: CSC

Great Britain: Barloworld (Continental Pro)

The Netherlands: Rabobank

[1centaur]

I for one will relish Agritubel at the expense of Astana. Not.

[Big Daddy]

Hey Johan...Enjoymo (http://www.chipotle.com/)

[soulspinner]

Allowing the two American teams with no chance of overall victory and no Astana helps heal the embarrassment of all the degoutants (Landis and Armstrong) series of wins. :fight:

[regularguy412]

BBD,

Thanks for the info. :) However, it's still early in the season. There's still time for one of the listed teams to screw up and get 'banned'. Astana might not yet be out of the picture.

I'm glad to see Barloworld back in this year. I kinda liked watching their underdog climber mix it up in the 07 Tour.

Mike in AR :beer:

[regularguy412]

Allowing the two American teams with no chance of overall victory and no Astana helps heal the embarrassment of all the degoutants (Landis and Armstrong) series of wins. :fight:

.... and the American 'team' Disco last year. They hadda figure _SOME_ way to get a French team a better shot at victory -- so they loaded it up with 6 French squads.

Mike in AR:beer:

[William]

.... and the American 'team' Disco last year. They hadda figure _SOME_ way to get a French team a better shot at victory -- so they loaded it up with 6 French squads.

Mike in AR:beer:

My thoughts exactly when I saw the list. :beer:


William

[giordana93]

isn't it always a bit like that? not like in the Giro or Vuelta when minor league national teams don't get to play. no wait. how about the "world champion" nfl or mlb? Its the tour de FRANCE atmo

[William]

I just thought it was amusing.




William

[ClutchCargo]

isn't it always a bit like that? not like in the Giro or Vuelta when minor league national teams don't get to play. no wait. how about the "world champion" nfl or mlb? Its the tour de FRANCE atmo

it is the Tour de FRANCE, but what's your point? :confused:

[HSG Racer]

It's kind of weird not seeing T-Mobile on the list. Those guy have really added to the excitement of the tour for so many years. I was sorry to see them break up.

A pleasant surprise is Barloworld. They showed up last year and did really well winning several stages with their Cannondales. Look for them to do even better this time around.

[Avispa]

Does this list include the wild cards?

..A..

[BumbleBeeDave]

Does this list include the wild cards?

..A..

. . . is that is all of them. 20 teams with 9 riders each for a 180 rider peloton.

BBD

[mikki]

Allowing the two American teams with no chance of overall victory and no Astana helps heal the embarrassment of all the degoutants (Landis and Armstrong) series of wins. :fight:

Totally agree! (sniff)

[I Want Sachs?]

I don't understand why leaving out Astana is such a big surprise, or reflect French as "sore losers". Here we have people saying French are stacking the deck for French teams? I mean, all Pro Tour Teams except for Astana is in. Only one of the three continental teams is French. What else can the "sore winners" complain about? :confused:

[jeffg]

[QUOTE=I Want Sachs]I don't understand why leaving out Astana is such a big surprise, or reflect French as "sore losers". Here we have people saying French are stacking the deck for French teams? I mean, all Pro Tour Teams except for Astana is in. Only one of the three continental teams is French. What else can the "sore winners" complain about? :confused:[/QUOTE

It has been debated many times, but I am still of the view the selective exclusion of Astana damages the TdF's credibility to the point I won't watch.

I would relish Agrituibel at the expense of:

Astana
Rabobank (chicken)
High Road (sinkewitz, anyone, not to mention what he's exposing about systematic doping in Freiburg)
Cofidis (Moreni)

With just Astana out it's just Unibet all over again, but this time with feeling

[regularguy412]

I don't understand why leaving out Astana is such a big surprise, or reflect French as "sore losers". Here we have people saying French are stacking the deck for French teams? I mean, all Pro Tour Teams except for Astana is in. Only one of the three continental teams is French. What else can the "sore winners" complain about? :confused:

I'm not sure you'd have a valid 'race' if the previous winner is excluded -- that is, provided he's not retired, caught doping, etc. Just appears to me that the ASO has tried the 'caught doping' route to exclude potential top-level competitors,, without much luck at doing so. So now they just choose to not invite the team that just 'happens' to have two of the top three finishers from _LAST_ year's race??? Not too subtle, IMHO.


MIke in AR :beer:

[I Want Sachs?]

Rabobank did not get caught with doping, and they removed "liar" while leading.

T-Mobile has folded. High Road is American team now.

I agree with leaving Cofidis in the Tour with Moreni is unfair.

Astana was caught with doping during Tour, so should be out along with Cofidis.

Discovery would not have been left off. There is no obligation for the Tour to take the team that the winner decided to move. If Lance Armstrong left Discovery after one of his wins and moved to Jelly Belly. Would Jelly Belly be deserving of an automatic bid?

[deanster]

I don't understand why leaving out Astana is such a big surprise, or reflect French as "sore losers". Here we have people saying French are stacking the deck for French teams? I mean, all Pro Tour Teams except for Astana is in. Only one of the three continental teams is French. What else can the "sore winners" complain about? :confused:

This is the last year for CSC as well. They are droping their sponsorship of the cycling team. The sponsor of the TdF may be banning the ubiquitious earphones and radios...back to the days of the brave rider and some real suspense in the tour. I am for it 100% Questionable whether LA could have won so many without the radio,,,

[jeffg]

Rabobank did not get caught with doping, and they removed "liar" while leading.

T-Mobile has folded. High Road is American team now.

I agree with leaving Cofidis in the Tour with Moreni is unfair.

Astana was caught with doping during Tour, so should be out along with Cofidis.

Discovery would not have been left off. There is no obligation for the Tour to take the team that the winner decided to move. If Lance Armstrong left Discovery after one of his wins and moved to Jelly Belly. Would Jelly Belly be deserving of an automatic bid?

I am not sure I agree with the principle behind your analysis. In any event, I do not think ASO would follow this consistently. The argument that Astana is the same old Astana rather than Discovery with a new sponsor, but High Road is a new team despite Stapleton's continued involvement and the continuity of the riders seems semantics at best and something ASO would use as it wants.

In fact, had Johan B. come out as Riis did, I imagine Discovery might have been excluded on that basis.

To your point, if Jelly Belly had as many Disco riders as Astana does + LA & had a ProTour license as Astana does I would say they would be deserving of an automatic bid ...

[giordana93]

these things (exclusions) are always political, and I'm in the camp of "geez, excluding 2 potential winners as retribution for another group of guy's actions is questionable at best." On the other hand, sweet old johan b. did not "play the game" of politics very well, so I blame it on him. Who was the one who went behind everyone's backs and hired Basso last year (saying screw you to the organizers, the other directors and Levi in the same breath); breaking unwritten rules of conduct like that, and having the winner of every tour of the last decade, (and the basso thing showed he would do anything to win) well, you can't just disregard the politics, even if you disagree with them or they get in your way. the exclusion is proof that the organizing society has at least some power that must be respected and it's not surprising to me that they felt the need to remind the world of that (the less power one has, the greater the perceived need to show it, right?)

as for my previous comment that is was the tour de FRANCE, it was just a reminder that all the national tours allow national teams to participate even if they don't stand a chance of producing the winner, and if anything the tour is more open in that regard than, say, MLB where the "world series" is contested by a very exclusive group that has little to do with an open "world" championship. It's all about money, in MLB and the Tour. (bring back the national teams for the Tour, as it is for world championships; that would be interesting)