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Bruyneel pleased with strong Astana performance

by VeloNews.com

• July 04, 2009
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By Justin Davis – Agence France Presse

Contador topped a strong team performance that saw four Astana riders finish in the top ten.

Photo: Casey B. Gibson

Astana manager Johan Bruyneel returned to the world’s biggest bike race in fine form after seeing his team dominate the top-ten on the opening stage of the Tour de France on Saturday.

While Switzerland’s Fabian Cancellara claimed the stage and the first yellow jersey of the race Astana were left well within sight of the race lead after placing four riders among the top ten after the 15.5km time trial.

Alberto Contador, the 2007 champion and this year’s overall favorite, finished second, 18 seconds adrift of Saxo Bank’s reigning Olympic champion.

With German Andreas Klöden in fourth, American Levi Leipheimer in sixth and seven-time champion Lance Armstrong finishing a very respectable 10th, Astana had plenty of reason to feel every bit as happy as Cancellara’s Saxo Bank team.

To some measure Bruyneel, who helped orchestrate all seven of Armstrong’s wins and oversaw Contador’s victory two years ago, has justified his team’s presence at the race.

His team was not invited to the Tour last year as they paid the price of a doping scandal which forced Astana, then under different management, out of the 2007 Tour after Alexander Vinokourov tested positive for blood doping.

As he urged caution ahead of what should be a thrilling, three-week battle for supremacy, Bruyneel said he had not expected anything less from his team of proven Tour de France riders.

“I don’t think (the result) is a surprise – these four riders have all been on the podium of the Tour and two of them have won eight Tours de France,” said the Belgian.

“It’s normal we have these guys in the top ten. I expected Contador to be the best in the team today. This is a great course for him.

“The only guy who could really beat him was Cancellara. The fact that he
(Cancellara) took back 25 seconds in the last seven kilometers was pretty amazing.”

This year’s race could be decided as late as the penultimate stage which includes the grueling 21km climb to the summit of Mont Ventoux.

By then the small time gaps that emerged on Saturday are likely to play their part in deciding the yellow jersey’s destination.

The Spaniard now has a 48-second lead on reigning champion Carlos Sastre, who finished in 21st place, and a 1:13 lead on recent Giro d’Italia champion Menchov, who finished in an unexpectedly modest 53rd place.

However, Bruyneel refused to read too much into their respective performances.
“I don’t see any surprises in the results, except maybe for the fact that Menchov is not up there. Other than that, all the favorites are there and the differences are not very, very big.

“Sastre’s lost a minute to Cancellara, but he’s not a minute down on the other favorites. I think he did okay.”

And the Belgian downplayed speculation that Astana would aim to take control of the race after Tuesday’s team time trial.

“I don’t know. Saxo Bank has a good team,” he said. “It’s still 18 seconds on Alberto, that’s a pretty big difference. It’s 39km and it’s been a while since we’ve had a team time trial. It’s not our objective anyway.”