Musical chairs

When Andy Schleck, the 2010 Tour de France runner-up, announced during the race that he and his older brother, Frank, would be leaving their team, Saxo Bank, I thought it was the beginning of the end of Bjarni Riis, the 1996 TdF champion who owned the team.

Riis, who started as a domestique for 2-time Tour champion Laurent Fignon, is a highly respected director sportif (manager/coach) who could make reclamation projects work and mold youngsters into great champions. This, despite the fact that he confessed to using performance-enhancing drugs during his racing days.

Riis's main sponsor, Saxo Bank, had announced that they were pulling out of the sport after this year and Riis had problems finding a replacement. To add insult to injury, two of his trusted staff, both Luxembourgers, had decided to form their own team even while they were still connected with Riis and were able to convince the Schlecks, also Luxembourgers, to sign up with their new team.

At 25yo, Andy had the most potential, after Alberto Conador, to win the Tour de France in the next few years. And the team that could sign him up could virtually get the sponsor of their won choosing.

Cycling's history have been littered with "discarded" director sportifs' whose record would seem to say that they were unexpendable. CyrilleGuimard, who led Greg Lemond, Fignon and Bernard Hinault to multiple Tour crowns, is just one of them. You can also include on this list Paul Koechli, Roger Legeay, Jim Ochowicz (he was resurrected this year with team BMC after a 15 year absence). On the flipside is Miguel Echavarri, who steered Miguel Indurain and Pedro Delgado to 6 Tour wins. Even though Echavarri's last Tour win was in 1995, he was able to get his team going for the next 15 years. This time though, after supporting his star rider Alejandro Valverde to the death for doping accusations, his team's tenure is seemingly about to end.  

But just as I thought that Riis was history, the cycling gods drops him a very unlikely gift, a gift-wrapped 3-time TdF champion Contador.

Contador, who had two tumultuous years with his team Astana (in 2009 with Lance Armstrong and this year with Alexander Vinokourov), finally decided that next year, he was going to look for a team where he was the only alpha male. First, it was rumored that Astana offered him a staggering 15million Euros. Then there were other rumors linking him to Echavarri's outfit, then Quickstep and even LA's team, Radio Shack.

Riis's name was never on the list until the last moment and it was a cycling equivalent of a massive coup de etat that succeeded. More surprisingly, Riis was able to convince Saxo Bank to extend its sponsorship for two more years!

But surprising non-development was the non-development of the new outfit that was supposed to sign up the Schlecks! Supposedly all set up, there is still no news about this new team, putting the Schlecks in limbo.

To put it in the perspective of a non-cycling fan, its like Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol leaving Phil Jackson and the LA Lakers for New York followed a few days later by James, Bosh and Wade leaving Miami for LA.

Confusing, as it seems, this will bode for a better and exciting 2011 season.