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File this under “you gotta be fucking shitting me.”
Bjarne Riis has removed Andy Schleck and Stuart O’Grady from the Vuelta a Espana after the pair violated team rules by drinking alcohol after dinner.
cyclingnews.com/news/updated-andy-schleck-ogrady-removed-from-vuelta.
Don’t worry fellas, we got a spot on the squad for men like yourselves. Drink after dinner? Highly encouraged if not outright mandatory. Allowances made, of course, for those on the wagon and so forth.
Seems our boys were kicking it late night, and the issue at hand was more that simply “drinking alcohol after dinner.”
Saxo Bank team manager Bjarne Riis has revealed that he sent Andy Schleck and Stuart O’Grady home from the Vuelta a España because they stayed out until 5 a.m. last night. The duo were withdrawn by their team ahead of today’s stage 10 from Tarragona to Vilanova i la Geltrú.
“They haven’t respected the rules of the team,” Riis said after the stage. “Whether it’s one glass or ten, at 5 a.m., it’s inexcusable. I’ve done what I had to do. The rules of the team are the same for everyone. We are professionals and we have to act professionally. I had to take this decision. It’s up to them to assume the consequences of what they’ve done.”
cyclingnews.com/news/riis-explains-schleck-and-ogrady-expulsion.
If you have won Paris-Roubaix, you can stay out till dawn as far as I’m concerned. Just sayin’…
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Well, he just sent a very strong message to the rest of the lame duck riders on the team. Don’t even bother showing up for the rest of the season.
…ahhh, yes…the list of riders for the eventual (& inevitable)‘drunkcyclist pro-tour team’ slowly grows…
…cheers, lads…we raise our glasses…ohhh, sorry bjarne but you did already send them home, right ???…
I’m assuming Mr. 50% is still fine with doping and just has issues with legal means of recreation.
…that would be Mr. 60…
I don’t know…considering the Saxo core group (Shlecks, Ogrady, Cancellara,etc) all seem to be leaving en masse, I’m betting a lot more shit was said before they decided to go out and get hammered.
As the fine folks at Plastic Peloton said, “Anyone who can ride a stage of a Grand Tour and still be boozing at 5am the next morning should get a medal, not an expulsion.”
Barney Rice is a chode…
So Blarney Reeses'(Cup) isn’t so psyched on the “recruiting” beer during the race then, eh?
Team Luxemburg needs more than two riders to be UCI right?
I call bullshit. Smells like Riis sent them home cause he got word there was some testing coming up that they might not pass.
Are they racing in SLC?
I’m guessing it would have been ok with Barney to stay out till 4 doping their asses off. Drinks were simply not his drug of choice.
…let’s keep in mind that although bjarne was handed the golden goose by ‘speciaized’, the schleck kids, along w/ stuey & other assorted pals, yanked the fucking rug out from under him w/ no advance warning…
…initially, his reality had become no tour contender(s), no sponsors on the horizon & management as well as riders all leaving the ‘bjarne boat’ like rats from that sinking ship…
…sure, it all came flooding back when specialized said “you don’t look very busy, dude, here’s a yellow jersey…you know what to do so make some calls” but pro or not, you don’t think there mighta been a little residual resentment laying around the office ???…
…bjarne slipped a little danish version of “mind your manners – paybacks a bitch” on the kids…
…i think he was just sayin’…
@Loren: We all know how a night out drinking can mess with your T/E ratio.
@BGW: Bjarne might get a good look at just how much of a bitch payback can be when Frank and the rest of the lads decide they’re having some “stomach `problems”.
…@ art…this could end up as a merry-go-round of cycling dysfunction…not that bcycle racing isn’t already dysfunctional…
…@ loren…yer not thinking clearly, amigo…mighta worked in the old days but the drug tests don’t stop just because the racing does…everybody is always on the grid, at all times…
…like frank sinatra sang…“day and night, night and day”…