Vuelta wildcards

by BDBrian on Jun 21, 2007 6:34 AM EDT

Karpin Galicia and Andalucia Caja Sur get the nods. Surprisingly absent is Relax-GAM, since Relax (the sponsor) is apparently owned by Unipublic.

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While riders are being railroaded into signing a loyalty oath that provides the UCI with the income from a TdF with all the stars present while shifting all of the risk for their involvement to the riders themselves, Unipublic is inviting Alvaro Pino (still offically personna non grata from involvement w/ PT teams, but so is Igor Gonzales de Galdeano who works for Euskaltel) to bring his team the Vuelta.

Last year's Vuelta was far and away the best racing of the 3 GTs. No extra-terrestrial domination and no watching Phonak, T-Mobile, and CSC refuse to actually do much racing.

Still, I have very little trust in the Spanish arm of the sport these days. While the invitation is not unexpected, I'd prefer that Pino and his team of Fuentes clients were not given such a prime invitation. Y'all know I'm sick to death of Unibet's sad whinging over picking the UCI to suck up to instead of the ASO, but I'd so much rather see them in Spain instead of Karpin. (Of course, after the way the dealt w/ Quesada, likely they wouldn't get a Vuelta invite even if the UCI hadn't lost the spring's pissing contest w/ the ASO.)

Brooklyn Chewing Gum: Vlaanderens Mooiste

by Koppenberg on Jun 21, 2007 1:03 PM EDT reply actions

Wow, that post needs serious editing.

OK: here's my beef w/ Karpin:

They are run by personna non grata Alvaro Pino, who took the fall for Hamilton & Perez's doping at Phonak.

Here's my beef w/ the Vuelta:
While they had the best racing of the 3 GTs last year, inviting Pino to bring his Fuentes' clients to Spain is not a positive step these days, especially since the UCI is foisting responsibility to the races for keeping out Fuentes' clients

Conclusion:
I'm sick of all the whinging from Unibet. They got what they deserved, in the power struggle between the UCI and ASO, they backed the UCI and disrespected the race organizers. Now they are crying into their beer that the race owners won't give them a special invitation. Despite all that, I'd still rather see Unibet in the Vuelta than Karpin-Galicia

Brooklyn Chewing Gum: Vlaanderens Mooiste

by Koppenberg on Jun 21, 2007 1:09 PM EDT up reply actions

Where is Relax?

I have no problem with Unibet being left home, if only because two Spanish continental teams is a pretty small gesture. Those teams and riders probably care infinitely more about riding the Vuelta than most of Unibet do.

Got a problem? Va fa Napoli!