yay, vino leaving t-mobile
 

for sure. T-mobile's website confirms he is not renewing contract next season. Eurosport speculates he's gonna sign with a French team (Credit Ag. or ag2r) after the TdF is over. Hope he finds a team that treats him better. :rolleyes:

They have said over and over on the OLN Tour coverage that he has said the only team other than T Moblie he is interested in signing with is Discovery. Of course nothing has come out of the Discovery camp about it because it would violate the UCI transfer rules.

Johan Brunyeel (?) publicly said he thinks Vino is a good rider but incapable of winning the Tour. Why would Vino sign for Discovery after a comment like that? Vino has ties to France, he lives in France, he moved to France as a teenager to train, rode for a French amateur team, speaks fluent French, it's not so unlikely he'd sign for a French team. He has ties to ag2r since he used to ride for Casino-ag2r (same manager)before T-mob, and ties to Credit Agricole because of his Kazakh friend Andrey Kashenkin.

Just pointing out what is being reported here.

Vino doesn’t strike me as someone who is very coachable or at least he doesn’t seem to be a good team player. I bet he has the same listening problems a Jan. This is just an armchair guess here but I always felt one of Armstrong’s greatest assets was his ability to be coached. He connected himself with strong opinionated coaches like Bruyneel and Carnichael. He listened, excepted critique and acted upon their direction. A trait some call beginner’s mind. I doubt Johan would want a personality like Vino on his team.

If he says he wants to ride as a GC, he probably wouldn't be welcome on Discovery, since I'm sure they probably have their own GC guy they're grooming. It would be nice if Vino would focus on the one day classics... that would be something he could really do well in.

Koffee

Can he still bring his funny coloured teal team kit with him?
f

I think it is the right decision on his part... Somehow T-Mobile isn't a good team for outsiders (meaning non-Germans)... They seem to mismanage lot of foreign talent, just look at Cadel Evans and Paolo Salvodelli... Both spent two years with them and had quite a slowdown with their careers... Sure, part of it were injuries but I also suspect there were more of cultural issues... Plus, being sponsored by a national telco company, they will only commit to supporting a German for a team leader... (2003 being an exception ;))

The latest news about this is that Disco would welcome Vino but they know that he's not a contender to win in Paris. Vino himself has been leaning toward Credit Agricole now.

Why would someone like vino go to Ag2r, have they done anything worth noting this year?
I bet it will be Credit Agricole

Seems like Credit Agricole has the edge as Vino is very close friend to Kashenkin and that CA won't resign their current leader, Christophe Moreau. Vino may not be a future winner (I still think he can) but he is very exciting to watch and always guarantees to be to seen in the race highligths. What's a plus for any advertiser. He would be a great mentor to Kashenkin as well who seem to have great potential.

I read those same comments this morning on Cyclingnews. I am troubled by comments from both as it is uncharacteristic for anyone to discuss negotiations publically--especially when under contract obligations to others. Vino is pubically open about his intentions and that may become a liability to any organization interested.

I also find it surprising that the always diplomatic Bruyneel would say such a comment about Vino in an interview. Very uncharacteristic.

I think there are some contractural and personal dynamics occuring under the surface here that are not being reported. I'll wait to see what precipitates after the tour.

IMO there are two issues here. First you have two riders who feel they are the gc contender on the same team(jan and vino) and its a giving they aren't going to work together very well. Second when you know your not returning to t-mob next year and seemingly they don't want you back, your team moral goes right out the window

Whaa.... Let me guess that you came to that conclusion after watching his tour 05... That is a bad data point as he had a beef with his team, coming into the tour... Everybodys opinion, at least over the air waves the past 2 years, has been that he is a man who rides with emotion. I dont think insubordinace, for lack of a better word, has been a problem till this year and will likely not be in a team with better realtions... I dont think there is anything with Vino which screams uncoachable..

Especially, since Ag2r is not even a Pro Tour team, so there is no guarantee that they'll be invited to the TdF '06 again... ;)

Actually this idea came to me from reading the press reports before the start of this years tour. The Tour just sort of confirmed it.

Is he a little too old for try to build a dynasty team around? He is 31 isn't he?

Personally when I am looking at candidates for open positions I am pretty skeptical of candidates with serious beefs with their current or past employer.

Credit Agricole would be a good place for him. Maybe he should ride for Manolo Saiz? That might be fun to read about.

I think it may be best for him to leave the soap opera that is TMob, but I don't particularly see how a move to Credit Agricole will help his career in terms of performance- they're a pretty average team by ProTour standards. He may be happier and have no.1 status, which is important and may be what he's looking for, but I doubt his stage race results will improve any (other than due to his being an undisputed team leader.)

Vinny _caused_ the soap opera at T-mobile, he wants Lance's job. He's not that good.

He rides with emotion, which is the last thing you want in a team leader. While he is champ of Kazahkstan..how many riders are there in Kazahkstan?

Liberty Seguros is also interested. They've got a stong team.

Vino's too stocky to be a good enough climber.

He's gotta drop some weight off his can

I would really like to see that. I like Saiz. I liked the old ONCE team. I would like to see how throwing Vino into the mix at Liberty Seguros would shake out.

Enough to hold national championship races, and enough to have national teams. To my knowledge there's a decent youth cycling program there, which Vino contributes to (donating bikes, equipment, kits, $$$) through Kivilev Foundation. There's a cycling school at the sports academy in Almaty which Vino applied to when he was a young'un. The prime minister Daniel Akhmetov is a cyclist, which can't hurt.

ONCE were awesome. I got chills watching those guys during the TTT. Liberty Seguros and ONCE are not the same team.

Now how come he wears a different color than the rest of the t-mobile squad?





































just kidding :D

One of my favorite things was watching the ONCE train dropping the hammer during the last 20k of a stage. Twas a thing of beauty.