CALAHORRA, Spain — Astana team leader Johan Bruyneel is looking forward to reuniting with seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong.
Bruyneel said Wednesday he has begun discussions with close friend Armstrong, who’s coming out of his three-year retirement to try to win an eighth Tour title in 2009.
“He won’t have a problem finding a team. But it’s clear that the relationship we have means that I can’t allow him to go to another team,” Bruyneel said. “For me, it would be nice to be a part of this.”
Rabobank team leader Adri van Houwelingen said the Dutch team had no interest in signing Armstrong.
“We were very interested in Lance Armstrong 15 years ago, and I think Lance Armstrong is not the future of active cycling,” Van Houwelingen said.
Although Bruyneel said sponsors and Astana directors still must give the green light, it sounds as if Armstrong is headed for a reunion with his former team director. But Bruyneel, who’s signed to Astana for another two years, said the discussions with Armstrong about joining Astana are focused only on 2009.
“It’s my team; this is what I built, so there’s no way (I will quit it),” Bruyneel said when asked if he would be ready to leave the Kazakh team to work elsewhere with Armstrong.
Astana teammate Levi Leipheimer seemed soured by talk of riding with Armstrong again.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” said Leipheimer, who teamed with Armstrong for one season at U.S. Postal Service.
Former World Anti-Doping Agency chief Dick Pound said he wonders about the motivation of Armstrong, who has been accused of using performance-enhancing drugs.
“If he’s absolutely clean, then there’s no risk, but tests are getting better,” Pound said. “He can expect to be targeted for testing and be tested under much more stringent circumstances than he may have been when he was competing in his previous career.”
Vande Velde takes lead in Missouri
BRANSON, Mo. — Christian Vande Velde of Boulder-based Garmin-Chipotle won the time trial to take the overall lead after the third stage of the Tour of Missouri.
Vande Velde completed the hilly, 18-mile course in 39 minutes, 51 seconds.
Australia’s Michael Rogers (Team Columbia), a three-time world time trial champion, was second in 40:12, and Canada’s Svein Tuft (Symmetrics) followed in 40:24. Vande Velde, who began the stage 24th, 20 seconds behind Mark Cavendish, took a 21-second margin over Rogers. Tuft was third, 44 seconds back.
The Associated Press
