Congratulations to Alberto Contador on his winning of the 2008 Giro d’Italia. Alberto learned that he would be ion the race only 8 days before the start in Sicily. The Astanateam has not nbeen invited to attend the Tour de France this year and Alberto commented yesterday that he is so happy with his pink jersey that he “wouldn’t want to swap it for a yellow jersey even if the Tour de France organizers change their minds about his team’s exclusion.”
Astana team manager Johan Bruyneel celebrated his 11th grand tour victory from behind the steering wheel of a team car with Alberto Contador’s unlikely Giro d’Italia win Sunday.
Johan’s comments include “As everyone knows, we were informed very late about our participation. I received a phone call from Mr. Zomegnan eight days before the Giro. We were totally unprepared. We didn’t expect it. We had to put our best team together. We did everything in 10 hours. We selected the team, the staff, arranged the travel and tried to get to Sicily as soon as possible. From there, we took it day by day. We didn’t expect anything special.”
“To win this race is a huge accomplishment, in what’s been a very difficult year for this team, when we’ve had some problems with some organizers. I would rank this victory very, very high, probably No. 3.”
The Tour de France (without the Astana team) runs Saturday July 5th to Sunday July 27th 2008, made up of 21 stages and will cover a total distance of 3,500 kilometers.