Monday, February 23, 2009

The Quotable L3VI

How happy does the man in the center look?


Hot off the presses at VeloNews.com,some interesting takes from Levi Leipheimer on last week's AToC:
"I told Lance the other day that I don’t know how the hell he won seven Tours in a row. You can’t get second place because that’s losing.”

“I’ve dreamt many times when training in the winter about making a move like the one I made on Bonny Doon (in stage 2), when the conditions are horrendous and you go for it."

“I need to pay these guys back. I’ll be working for Alberto (Contador) in Paris-Nice, riding for Lance in the Giro, and we’ll have our best team in the Tour.”

Make of this last what you will with regard to the ostensible team leader for the Tour de France.

Finally, a pleasant blast from the Director Sportif himself:
His team manger Bruyneel praised Leipheimer and said the whole team enjoys riding for him. “It was a harder and more difficult victory than ever,” Bruyneel said. “But everybody knows Levi is going to be ready if he says he is going to be ready. He already had the fastest time-trial position but he went back to the wind tunnel two times this winter. Levi always delivers when he says he’s gonna be there.”

Nice! (We'll disregard the reference to Bruyneel as a baby's crib. I'm sure it was unintentional. "Team manger"?)

2 comments:

Glenn_in_MA said...

Why do I get the sense that Astana is intent on making cyling history this year? Is it possible that they could place more than one rider on the podium for the Tour GC?? After the lull and disgrace of the last few years, a lot to look forward to in Pro cycling this year!

Harry said...

Agreed, Glenn.

Funny, at the last minute, I edited out a sentence about Astana aiming to be the cycling "dynasty team" of the early 21st C.!