Man, it almost seems like things would have gone better, or at least gotten that much more interesting for the team and the pro peloton had Astana’s Kazakh sponsors not come through with their financial backing in the eleventh hour.
Instead of the Astana squad, we would have seen team Livestrong-Nike in the 2009 Tour de France, with 2007 Tour de France winner Alberto Contador, Benjamin Noval, Sergio Paulinho, and Contador’s preferred mechanic and soigneur from Astana all moving to Garmin-Slipstream had Astana defaulted on their contractual obligations.
Will/has all this been distracting for the Astana squad, not to mention the number of high-level riders on the squad. It should be an interesting Tour de France this year!
Well, the Stanley Cup playoffs are officially over for me, with the Canes getting swept and eliminated in short order against Pittsburgh.
So despite a great win last night in overtime against the Boston Bruins, the Carolina Hurricanes still aren’t getting their national respect. It seems NBC doesn’t think the Eastern Finals between the Canes and Penguins is worth national coverage, even for a game or two. Instead, the games will all be on Versus. Oh well, at least we’ll still get high definition coverage, and it’s a step up from the Fox Sports coverage we’ve had to suffer through thus far for most of the Canes’ post-season run. Game 1 against Pittsburgh will be Monday night. Go Canes!
If you’ve been watching the 2009 Giro d’Italia stage 7 live feed this over at 







Entries (RSS)