With the addition of Yaroslav Popovych and Haimar Zubeldia, Johan Bruyneel has put together what should be considered the best and strongest Tour teams in history. Popovych has finished 8th in the Tour and 3rd and 5th in the Giro, while Zubeldia has finished the Tour in 5th twice and 8th once. Team Astana now has six riders that have finished in the top 8 in the Tour at least once.
All six are strong in the mountains and will now give a decided edge to Astana in all the mountain stages.
The toughest job now for Bruyneel is to chose the other three riders for the Tour team. Six are now set with Armstrong, Contador, Leipheimer, Kloden, Popovych and Zubeldia. As of now I believe the team will complete it's line-up with Rubiera, Paulinho and Chris Horner. That will leave out Benjamin Noval and promising riders like Vaitkus, Iglinskiy, Jesus Hernandez and Brajkovic.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot Vino's coming back. Vinokourov received a suspension of only one year for a postive test of a banned blood transfusion. That suspension is up in July 2009. I doubt it will be in time for the Tour and I certainly don't think Bruyneel is looking forward to his return. Time will tell.
Now for my updated prediction of this year's Tour de France:
1. Contador - 2. Leipheimer - 3. Zubeldia with at least 5 top 10 finishers from Astana.
This will definetly make them the best ever, beating the 1986 Team La Vie Claire which finished First, Second, Fourth and Seventh. Getting excited now! Is it July yet?
Time Trialling Inspiration Courtesy of Cancellara
8 months ago