Lance may be in trouble, folks. Team Astana is having a meltdown 10 days before the tour begins.
Astana's sponsors had failed, up until a few days ago, to provide the money they were obligated for. A cool $6 million.
The ambiguity of possible failed sponsorship created an internal panic spurring Lance and Co. to set up another entity in case of total sponsor collapse. Livestrong-Nike was born. (We LIKE!!)
Lance rode under this name at last Sunday's Nevada City Classic - his other teammates did not.
Livestrong-Nike was to be officially launched last Saturday (6/20). However, now that Astanas sponsors have ponied up, that all goes away. For now. Lance will resurrect L-N for his own team in 2010. Still, this has to way heavily on his mind.
The other problem inside the team seems to be an ongoing debate over Alberto Contador jumping ship. He's shopped himself out to at least two other teams behind Astanas back and seems to have an alliance with Alejandro Valverde of Team Caisse D' Epargne. This is bad. Bad.
Alberto is supposed to have Lance's back during the Tour. Not knowing if he is friend or foe when he is your own teammate is...bad!
Well, well, well...The game is afoot.
We bet on Lance!
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