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Monday 22 September 2008

Lance Armstrong’s cycling team

Bit of a venture off-topic for me this one, but it's one that's doing the rounds of the blogosphere in the sporting circles.
So if you're expecting another tirade about the industry majors or the EC or a recommendation of another bedroom musician then you'd probably best keep clicking. Any cyclists out there might want to continue reading...

Lance Armstrong is returning to cycling, but for whom will he ride? Some say he will go straight back to Astana and the welcoming (?) arms of Johan Brunyeel, others (and this is where this blog comes in) that he will start his own team, based on the anti-cancer work of his foundation, called team LiveSTRONG.
The fat cyclist may not be directly responsible for this second rumour but he's rightly doing his best to promote it :¬)
But i propose the following twist:

Team Astana-LiveSTRONG.
The team and manager is in place, the legalities and licenses are there as are the mechanisms for promotion and operation.
This, i accept, has been mentioned before, so here comes the twist:
Lance (or Mr Armstrong as i prefer to think of him) will actually ride as a chief domestique to Contador.
Wait, wait! it's not that crazy! Listen…
Mr A is doing this for the foundation, it's about getting that jersey on the podium and the name in the papers as often as possible. That's his motivation, his true motivation. What better way to do this than by supporting probably the best GC rider around at the moment. Those who think he couldn't be this selfless need just look at what he's done since retiring.
Think also of how this would mitigate any rumours around drugs etc - he's just the domestique, he's not the challenger, why focus on bad press for a dom? It sidelines all that built-up vitriol.
Ultimately consider two possibilities: Contador on the winners podium wearing his dual-branded astana LiveSTRONG top saying his team and Mr A helped get him there,
or,
Mr A, as his team's highest finisher, languishing down in 18th spot on the GC and getting just a couple of lines mention in the more dedicated of the sporting papers.
I'm going with my theory and hoping that by posting it on Fatty's site, this site and my blog i will piggy-back on his rumour mill!

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