Originally Posted by
pdxtex
im still beside myself about this news. 15 million does sound like a huge budget for a cycling team but it seems like they were just starting to get their post lance stride back. obviously, with the contador win and overall team win. wtf?!! even with the controversy of this tour (when is there not controversy anyway?!!), and a rider who was caught doping, t-mobile announced that is going to stay on as a title sponsor of its team....so to discovery, why quit now?!! i think they are just throwing in the towel and giving up, and for me a fan, i feel let down. i guess its all eyes on slipstream now....go team burrito.
This is why even the main stream media is raising questions about the motivation in the articles. The NY Times even raised the doping question. You do not win your 8th Tour in 9 years, have arguably the youngest talent in the entire peleton (equaled maybe by Andy Schleck) on your team and have Lance Armstrong backing you, and throw in the towel like they did. You are telling me that $10 million would not have worked? I mean, this is not like Contador is on his last leg, and the rest of the team is weak and old, and there is a serious rebuilding project ahead. They would have been clear favorites next year.
Even if USAZorro is correct, and some of the Partners wanted out, if Lance and Bruyneel really wanted, they could have found other partners.
Lance and Bruyneel wanted out. You have to work on that presumption and from there, you then do the thought experiment as to why? And as stated by numerous posters, the Bjarne Riis and T-Mobile situation was probably a big reason why. These guys can leave, and slowly people will move on. If Lance and Bruyneel stay in the sport, with the Contador investigation going on, all it will do is lead to more questions and potentially the entire bag of beans being spilled about the 1999 - 2005 era.