Despite The Success, Astana Looks Set To Implode In The Wake Of Le Tour

Team Astana’s domination of the 2009 Tour de France would, you would imagine, be cause for great celebration and provide a strong foundation upon which Astana could build a dynasty.

Of course, if you did imagine it, you’d be quite wrong.

The team is completely dysfunctional, and has more petty jealousies and rivalries than your average daytime soap opera.

The bickering and infighting had been simmering along all through the Tour, with Alberto Contador deciding to do his own thing suspecting that his team was conspiring to promote Lance Armstrong’s race chances above his own.

Armstrong too has not missed the opportunity to fire thinly veiled barbs at his Spanish counterpart.

Despite this, the lid had been kept on the disharmony – just. The media were only allowed to see a fraction of what was going on which is a testament to the professionalism of all involved.

The telling moment came after the completion of the Tour, when Armstrong went to celebrate with the sponsors of his new team rather than with the Tour’s winner and teammate, Contador.

Squabbles notwithstanding, the collection of talent arrayed by Astana to take on this year’s Tour is staggering. Had Levi Leipheimer not broken his wrist, Astana would, in all probability, had four riders in the top ten positions in the General Classification – an astonishing achievement.

The team was originally built around disgraced rider Alexander Vinokourov, but interestingly, this year’s iteration was dominated by former Discovery/US Postal team members under the canny management of their former directeur sportif Johan Bruyneel.

This is the same team that carried Armstrong to his seven TdF victories and with faithful lieutenants Leipheimer and Yaroslav Popovych at his side, it’s easy to see why Contador was a little paranoid about his team leader’s position.

Astana is, for all intents, the Manchester United of the cycling world. Why then, even accounting for the internal tensions, has there been a mass exodus announced, even before this year’s Tour was over?

The easy explanation is that Contador has desperately wanted to race for a Spanish team and indeed his name has been linked to Caisse d’Epargne and to a new team allegedly being put together by former Formula One world champion, Fernando Alonso.

Armstrong too, wanted a team that he has full control of, that supports his Livestrong Foundation and that could potentially take him to an unprecedented eighth TdF crown. It is safe to suggest that he doesn’t like playing second fiddle to anyone.

Looking a little deeper though and darker reasons abound, not least of which is the omnipresent doping questions. Le Tour 2009 has, to date, seen no-one test positive for any kind of performance enhancing assistance; a welcome relief after the last few years.

There’s still time for things to surface, of course, but we live in hope that this will be the first clean race in living memory.

The return of Alexander Vinokourov, however, casts a pall over team Astana. Vino has announced to the world that he is returning to Astana, a team that he sees as his own personal plaything.

With Contador and Armstrong both having questions hanging over their careers – Contador with alleged involvement with Operacion Puerto and Armstrong with his alleged "unofficial" positive tests – neither would want to be involved with a known and unrepentant doper in the form of Vinokourov.

Both Contador and Armstrong will take riders from Astana with them; Armstrong will likely take Johan Bruyneel too and so the Astana star that shone so very brightly, will now fade so very fast.

What a shame but, also, what a relief.