Bert to stay at Astana?

by cg. on Aug 16, 2009 9:25 AM EDT

It's being pretty widely reported that Bert is staying at Astana - at least according to the Kazahks. I have 3 comments on that:

This year's fun with Lance at the Tour is not even going to qualify as a warm-up for the all-out open battle he'll face with future teammate Vino (assuming Astana even gets an invite next year).
The Kazahks are not really interested in either the major payout on Bert's contract on the one hand or the prestige of having the defending champ riding for them on the other, but instead know they need to keep Bert to have a shot at getting Vino into the game (still less-than-50/50 chance of an invite, I would think).
Heh heh heh (is that 75 yet?) heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh

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If it's enforced...

, could he, in theory, just sit the year out and not race (and still get paid)?

He’s still young and a year off the grind couldn’t hurt him.

Racing for Victory and Free Beer!

by DemonCats on Aug 16, 2009 12:43 PM EDT reply actions

That would be letting LA off too easily

"How strange it was to see men doing something beautiful. Something pointless and elegant." Tim Winton, 'Breath'

by Seahorse on Aug 16, 2009 3:11 PM EDT up reply actions

He could take a bunch of musettes and hand them out on mountain stages.

Lance might have a weak spot there.

The first cyclist to stand up to him. And he did it in silence.

by flying dog on Aug 16, 2009 3:37 PM EDT up reply actions

He can’t refuse to race and get paid. I can’t see any way that wouldn’t be breach of contract on his end. He can refuse to race for Astana, not get paid by Astana, and Astana can at least try to deny anyone else the right to let him race for them for pay. The 100 million dollar question (ok not that much but several million probably) is whether Bert’s got a legal argument that gets him out of the contract, so he can ride for someone else and get paid. If not, his options are ‘ride for Astana and get paid’ or ’don’t ride and don’t get paid.’

The latter, by the way, should also have the effect of making any other team on the planet that’s sane think three or four or six times before signing him to any contract at all. People who just break contracts because they’re annoyed at team management are um, not typically people you want to sign contracts with.

In a lot of respects, this is why it’s fairly important for this to end with either a) Astana voluntarily letting him go / allowing someone to buy out his contract or b) Bert actually winning a lawsuit against them to the effect that they’ve so materially changed the terms of his employment as to make the original contract invalid. Even then, I’d say b is a much less preferable option because it still tends to set a precedent that, as a team manager, I’d be very uncomfortable with.

You see how calm Vaughters is? That’s because he’s really one giant seething ball of Evil inside. With like, extra Evil.

by Ed K on Aug 17, 2009 2:10 PM EDT up reply actions