"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - BMC Terminates Cooperation with Astana

Press Release

BMC Terminates Cooperation with Astana

Grenchen, 31 July 2007 - The Swiss bike manufacturer BMC has terminated prematurely its
agreement with the Swiss/Khazakh cycling team Astana as per end of July 2007. The reason
for this is the latest case of doping that occurred in the Astana team during the Tour de
France that has just ended. Whether BMC will engage again in the future as a sponsor of a
professional cycling team is still an open question. The other current BMC sponsoring
activities in professional cycling, mountain biking and triathlon are not concerned by the
present decision.


http://www.bmc-racing.com/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/Medientexte/Medienmitteilung_BMC_010807_E.pdf

Very interesting. I wonder who will be the bike sponsor for them now? Possibly Time or back to the BH?

They should go with Pedal Force

So BMC's top-end racing frame has been shot in the foot first by Phonak, then by Astana. Makes you wonder if they're ever going to sponsor a UCI team again.

So what is Astana going to ride tomorrow?

I hope they are stuck with Scwhinn.

Is there a surprise here?


Heck, if they'll front me some cash for supplies...I'll build 'em frames and "sponsor" them! :D

So BMC's top-end racing frame has been shot in the foot first by Phonak, then by Astana. Makes you wonder if they're ever going to sponsor a UCI team again.

They have their own team.

http://www.uci.ch/ucinet/uci.asp?page=Teams&discipline=ROA&continent=ame&teamscategory=ame&teamstype=ctm&ryear=2007&l=FRA

They have their own team.

http://www.uci.ch/ucinet/uci.asp?page=Teams&discipline=ROA&continent=ame&teamscategory=ame&teamstype=ctm&ryear=2007&l=FRA

Yeah, I know. The continental teams seem to stay away from the doping drama, though.

Yeah, I know. The continental teams seem to stay away from the doping drama, though.

Not as much coverage, that's all.

So what is Astana going to ride tomorrow?

I hope they are stuck with Scwhinn.


is schwinn not a good brand? it'll be pretty funny when they do pick up schwinn and start winning on them. can't wait to see half the people here drooling over their bikes.

I hope to see them on Pegoretti's, but that'll never happen.

But I'm still more than willing for BMC to sponsor my team.

Very interesting. I wonder who will be the bike sponsor for them now? Possibly Time or back to the BH?


Well, they have some time to sort it out....


Astana suspends competition pending review

The Astana team, which pulled out of the Tour de France following the failed dope test of their Kazakh leader Alexander Vinokourov, announced on Tuesday that it had suspended all sporting activities until the end of August.

"This period will give us the time to question the serious issues such as management, staff and riders," said the Swiss-based team in a statement. "The management will put into effect new rules, concerning the structure of the team as well as ethical rules..."

http://www.velonews.com/race/int/articles/13024.0.html



Might be a good time to pick up an Astana SCL01 at a discount...


http://www.kawahatacycle.jp/pc/cycle/BMC/2007/m/promachineSLC01_Astana.jpg

Actually,

is it not a collectors item of sorts?

So BMC's top-end racing frame has been shot in the foot first by Phonak, then by Astana. Makes you wonder if they're ever going to sponsor a UCI team again.


Not to forget Tyler Hamilton prior to Landis.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2006/features/hamilton_appeal/mDSC_0069hamilton.jpg

I'll step up and be sponsored by BMC and use their bikes. I'm clean.

It's tough, but someone has to do it.

Where is BikesDirect when you need them? Seems like a perfect match.

-D

Astana should just go buy some Treks

http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2007/jul07/colombia07/colombia070/boteropro.jpg

Might be a good time to pick up an Astana SCL01 at a discount...


http://www.kawahatacycle.jp/pc/cycle/BMC/2007/m/promachineSLC01_Astana.jpg

There was a guy on an Astana SCL01 just like that at the Tuesday Nighter last night. Nice looking bike. He got dropped when the pack was chasing my break :D

is schwinn not a good brand? it'll be pretty funny when they do pick up schwinn and start winning on them. can't wait to see half the people here drooling over their bikes.

Discovery wins on Trek bikes but that dosent make me want one.

Astana should just go buy some Treks

http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2007/jul07/colombia07/colombia070/boteropro.jpg

They left the BSF on the chain stays?

Since I just got a Bianchi how about them?

There is another interesting blog entry by Gerard Vroomen at Cervelo. He discusses using sponsorship as a way to effect change and clean up the sport. It can be found at:

http://www.cervelo.com/blogs.aspx?id=gv#54

Here is the text:


Where to Start

29-Jul-2007: I’ve started a blog entry several times in the last week, but every time I drowned in a sea of disbelief. How many idiots does it take to hold a Tour de France? Every day somebody manages to do or say something even dumber than the day before. A small selection:

- UCI and the ASO make strong statements about fighting doping, but they still cannot figure out the Fuentes nickname “Valv. (Piti)”. There is apparently a fairly well-known rider with a dog named Piti, but they just can’t put their finger on it. ASO probably thinks it’s Lance, just because.
- Valv. (Piti)’s teammate’s dog is also on the list. Must be some fast canines they breed in Spain, I wonder if they can outrun Michael Vick’s dogs.
- UCI comes up with a rider pledge against doping, apparently without any input from riders, teams or race organizers. Only riders who sign the pledge can ride the Tour, so everybody signs, making the whole pledge a mockery. ASO is happy despite not being consulted, until the first doping case appeared. Then it was all the fault of the UCI again, didn’t see that coming.
- Experts agree that no doping-sinner will ever pay one-year’s salary back to the UCI as stated in the pledge. If any of the riders busted at the Tour ever does, I will grab my bike and ride from the UCI headquarters in Switzerland to wherever the ASO headquarters are in an attempt to broker a truce. Then I will move on to the Middle East.
- Astana’s Matthias Kessler sets a new world record for testosterone/epi-testosterone ratio. Blames four packages with “Chinese writing” on them. I’m sorry, but either he has completely missed the whole tainted food supplement discussion for the past ten years, or he is insulting every cycling fan in the world with the most bone-headed story every. How can somebody that stupid still be alive? It goes against everything we know about natural selection.
- Sinkewitz’ test results come out in July, even though the test was early June. Is there no procedure to get these things done quickly?
- UCI blames the ASO, ASO blames UCI. Still didn’t see that coming.
- When the Sinkewitz information came out, it was just about the A sample. How can we trust an anti-doping process that can’t even follow its own confidentiality rules?
- German TV stops broadcasting when the Sinkewitz affaire comes out “because cycling has a doping problem”. Message to other sports: Make sure you don’t have any positive tests. Translation: You can’t stop doping, so just don’t do serious testing.
- German politicians jump on the bandwagon and call for all sort of actions. They don’t like cycling anymore, but they continue to love the clean sports of track & field and soccer. As long as they don’t take doping tests seriously anyway, once they do they will probably walk away from those sports as well.
- Speaking of soccer, the FIFA president finally admitted in 2003 that soccer did have a doping problem. But still no action on information that the ex-captain of the French team regularly visits a Swiss clinic for some blood work. Comments from the French soccer federation: “We haven’t read the article, although it is probably true. But is that illegal, we’re not sure?" (and have apparently no desire to find out).
- Adidas considers stopping the sponsorship of T-Mobile over doping concerns. No word on their sponsorship of major-league baseball teams.
- Dog race is rudely interrupted by Markus Burghardt from T-Mobile. Dog protests: “Can’t they keep this cycling freak show off the road while we’re having a serious event.”
- Vinokourov tests positive for using somebody else’s blood. Of course, only the A sample but the news leaks anyway. Vino proclaims innocence (didn’t see that one coming at all), says he has always raced clean, snickers can be heard in the peloton. Still, whether he is clean or not, it is hard to believe anybody could be so stupid to use a doping method that is so easily detectible. Or is it arrogance?
- Rasmussen misses the gate change announcement and ends up on a plane to Italy instead of Mexico. Forgets to tell the anti-doping authorities in the ensuing two months.
- UCI blames the ASO, ASO blames UCI. Still didn’t see that coming.
- Rasmussen gets embroiled in a doping controversy. Rabobank is “surprised”. Nobody else is. Once again, snickering can be heard in the peloton.
- Cofidis institutes the “Movement for clean cycling” and stages a protest with a few other teams. Later that same day, Cofidis rider Moreni tests positive and Cofidis goes home.
- Rasmussen is rumored to be one of the “men in black” who train in neutral apparel to avoid being recognized by doping inspectors. And supposedly Rasmussen doesn’t want to draw attention to being in Italy when he is supposed to be in Mexico. Putting another nail in Darwin’s coffin, he does however pose for photo-ops.
- WADA’s Dick Pound claims that cycling’s positive doping tests and exclusions show the sport is not serious about cleaning up. Come again? Aside from that, he seems to be having a good week, no reports of any slander lawsuits against him.

So where does the sport go from here? Cycling has two options. Either we get back in line with most other sports in the world, stop serious testing and pretend we don’t have a problem, and life will be grand (big-paying sponsors, good TV contracts, not a care in the world aside from cyclists dying at an early age and robbing those wanting to race clean of a chance to win the big races). Or the sport, riders, teams, sponsors and fans all agree that we have to push through now, that things will get worse before they get better, but eventually they will get better. Nobody should believe that this year’s top-10 is clean, but it may be a little cleaner than last year. Babysteps, as a friend of mine would say. That does make it difficult to love the sport right now, I have to admit that I wasn’t particularly interested in watching the last week of the Tour. On the other hand, I still love the sport as much as I ever have, and it was certainly good to be out on the bike in Collingwood, where we are for our North American dealer show. In the end, it’s much more important that people discover and enjoy cycling as a participatory sport, and if we can top that up with some interesting and mostly clean professional cycling, that’s a bonus. If not, I’ll just go for another ride.

So where does Cervélo go from here? Well, we think the change has to come from within the teams, and as a sponsor we need to encourage that change. So we are happy to contribute to the Team CSC anti-doping program, but we want to do more. One of the ways we now hope to do that is by exploiting the superiority of our bikes. You see, thanks to the rave reviews by CSC riders and mechanics in the peloton, we regularly get other teams asking if we would be interested in sponsoring them. We have always said no, as it’s just too much work, but this past month, I have started to respond with “Sure, if you institute Team CSC’s anti-doping program”. So far one team has said they would be interested in doing that, so we’ll see how that progresses, and I’ll keep you informed. If we can get a couple of teams to adopt the Team CSC anti-doping program, maybe it can snowball from there.

If you have any other constructive ideas on how Cervélo can do its part in changing this sport, please let me know.

That's too bad, because that funky junction between the top tube and seat tube is a nice place to hang an IV bag....

That's too bad, because that funky junction between the top tube and seat tube is a nice place to hang an IV bag....

:beer::roflmao:

Didn't the owner of BMC own/run the Phonak Team?

Astana should just go buy some Treks

http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2007/jul07/colombia07/colombia070/boteropro.jpg


Oh, I get it now, that "Trek" is a BMC Time Machine TT01. They haven't even repainted it, just slapped Trek stickers over the BMC, and left the tell-tale BSF and BMC slogans on the chainstay.

http://images.competitivecyclist.com/images/products/bmc/2007/time_machine01_zoom_1.jpg

Discovery wins on Trek bikes but that dosent make me want one.

i guess that would make you part of the other half, then, wouldn't it.

Not to forget Tyler Hamilton prior to Landis.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2006/features/hamilton_appeal/mDSC_0069hamilton.jpg

By Jove, you've got it! This entire doping scandal is a plot by Trek to bring down BMC!

is schwinn not a good brand? it'll be pretty funny when they do pick up schwinn and start winning on them. can't wait to see half the people here drooling over their bikes.

What rock have you been under for the last few years? Schwinn/GT went bankrupt a few years back, was bought out by Pacific (purveyors of Mal-Wart crap bikes) who then proceeded to label the **** they sell as Schwinn. So no, Schwinn isn't the great company it was even 10 years ago.

So no, Schwinn isn't the great company it was even 10 years ago.

i wasn't asking what kind of company they are. tell me about their bikes. and don't tell me what you've "heard," either. tell me what makes their bikes any worse than the next company you don't like for no good reason.

i wasn't asking what kind of company they are. tell me about their bikes. and don't tell me what you've "heard," either. tell me what makes their bikes any worse than the next company you don't like for no good reason.

The title of this thread didn't ask you to tell someone to tell you about Schwinn bikes.

The title of this thread didn't ask you to tell someone to tell you about Schwinn bikes.

Because, of course, the title of a thread always matches 100% of the content contained within it.

updates on who else backs away from astana please. i'd like to see every sponsor leave and klodden (if he's negative) go on to another team so that he's not held down by someone like vino.

Because, of course, the title of a thread always matches 100% of the content contained within it.

My friend, the point, was hanging out in my former post somewhere; I guess you just missed him.

The title of this thread didn't ask you to tell someone to tell you about Schwinn bikes.

great post, big thinker.

My friend, the point, was hanging out in my former post somewhere; I guess you just missed him.

No, I saw him. He was laughing at you.

Cycling News has finally got around to reporting on August 3rd what we've been discussing since July 31st.

BMC terminates sponsorship contract with Astana

Citing "the latest case of doping that occurred in the Astana team during the Tour de France", Swiss bicycle maker BMC has recently announced the premature termination of its sponsorship contract with the Swiss/Kazakh team. BMC stated that this development will not affect its other sponsorship agreements in mountain biking and triathlon, but was distinctly vague in regards to its future in professional road cycling.

The announcement perhaps does not come as much of a surprise as this marks the second disappointing major sponsorship arrangement for BMC, who first burst on to the scene with Tyler Hamilton and his Phonak squad. Please stay tuned for additional information.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/tech.php?id=tech/2007/news/08-03

I hope to see them on Pegoretti's, but that'll never happen.


Pegoretti's, hopefully would never join up with an suspect outfit like Astana.
Wonderful, wonderful bikes.
Do you know if Dario is still ill?

Pegoretti's, hopefully would never join up with an suspect outfit like Astana.
Wonderful, wonderful bikes.
Do you know if Dario is still ill?

Doesn't Dario dope too?

So... do we know who will be a bike sponsor for Astana now? I look at their website and found Look and Specialized are key sponsors.. but both companies have more than bicycles to sell.