dks

This should be interesting. They were 4th in the TTT this year. The question is whether someone like Heras is willing to work for Vino next year.

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Vinokourov to join Liberty Seguros from T-Mobile

PARIS, July 26 (Reuters) - Alexander Vinokourov will join the Liberty Seguros team next year to pursue his goal of winning the Tour de France, the Kazakh rider told sports daily L'Equipe on Tuesday.

Vinokourov said he could no longer ride in the shadow of 1997 Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich anymore and last week said he would be leaving the German's T-Mobile team.

"My goal is clear, I want to win the Tour de France," said Vinokourov. "So I chose the team with the best arguments. It's the most organised and the most experienced team.

"They have the best riders in the mountains and are among the bests in the team time trials. It was almost a natural choice."

Vinokourov, who was fifth overall in this year's Tour and won two stages including the last one on the Champs-Elysees, said all his efforts would be aimed at winning cycling's most prestigious prize.

"We have discussed my programme for 2006," he said. "I've had the guarantee I will be able to fully focus on the Tour de France."

Laggard

Saiz has said that Heras will not be riding the TDF again and will instead focus on the Giro and Vuelta. So there should be no conflict between the two at the Tour.

Crack'n'fail

Wow, I didn't expect that. I think it will be a good fit for him, though. In all honesty, I think it's probably the best situation he could have gotten into.

lotek 

Good match if you ask me.
Vino has the fire to actually pull it off.
Saiz has been close so many times.
It will be weird watching Vino in a time trial
with Saiz following in a car screaming through a bull horn.

Corsaire

with Saiz following in a car screaming through a bull horn.[/QUOTE]

....in spanish: ATACA, ATACA !!!!!

Corsaire

Laggard

Na, it's actually VENGA VENGA VENGA!!!

Jakey

This makes things interesting.. Can't wait for next july.

gpelpel

Vino will definitely be a major contender. Liberty has a strong climbing team that should be of great help set the pace and to carry him to the top where he can apply one of his treadmark accelerations. They are also a good TT team.

sabretech2001

I don't if y'all caught this, but during one of the mountain stages (I think it was Stage 19) Phil Liggett observed that Heras couldn't make the change from top lieutenant to team leader. Installing Vino as the captain should work out well for everyone: Vino won't have to ride in the shadow of former Tour winner Ullrich, and won't have GC contender Kloden either, and he'll have (if past years with the Posties is any indication) a top notch lead out guy in Heras for the mountains, and maybe we'll get to see Heras on the stage winner's podium, too.

doctorSpoc

I think it's a good fit too.. the only wrench in the works i can see is if Beloki gets back to his old form by next year... he did a lot better than expected in this years tour, by next year he may actually be back and then Vino might have another T-Mobile situation all over again... spanish rider, spanish team... who are they going to ride for?

skinnyone

I think this is a great fit form gim instead of sprinter teams like CA or Cofidis... He is in a team that is most definitely in it for the GC... Next year is gonna be KickA...

dks

Eurosport reports that Liberty Seguros is also set to sign Kazakh rider Andrey Kashechkin, who finished second in the white jersey competition this year. And with Sergey Yakovlev also following Vino over from T-Mobile, it looks like LSW has decided it will only sign Kazakh riders from now on.

Cromulent

Cool! Next July, we should see Vino on the second step of the podium between Basso and Ullrich. That'll be a fun Tour.

gcasillo

Actually, they just want to corner the market on the Kazakh champion's jersey, because they know how ubiquitous (persistent? nagging?) it is as a topic on bikeforums.

fixiechick

[QUOTE=dks]Eurosport reports that Liberty Seguros is also set to sign Kazakh rider Andrey Kashechkin, who finished second in the white jersey competition this year. QUOTE]


Do you have a link to this? I can't find it on Eurosport or Credit A's or Liberty S's website. Thanks.

dks

Here you go! It's at the very bottom.

https://www.eurosport.com/home/pages/...to746723.shtml

"Meanwhile, reports emanating from French sports daily l'Equipe suggest that Vinokourov will be joined at Liberty Seguros by his friend Andriy Kashechkin of Crédit Agricole."

dks

Hehe...let's hope they don't go out and get the Kazakh time trial champion as well (can't figure out who it is at the moment--I know it's not Kasheckin, though), because you can imagine the kinds of questions we'll get on TT days. "Why did Vino switch jerseys with X today? Does the turquoise jersey rotate among his teammates?"