http://www.velonews.com/article/92091/a-conversation-with-johan-bruyneel--the-team-will-ride-the

The Andrew Hood interview of Bruyneel over on Velo News is pretty interesting.  It sounds like Astana's $2 million bank guarantee is still untapped.   This explains why they have been patient with their sponsor despite only being paid for 2 months out of the season. They are essentially covered up until now by the guarantee.

The other thing I found interesting was Hood's question about Vinokourov's roll in all of this.  He implies that the Kazakh sponsors may be holding out as a bargaining tool to bring Vino on board the team.  I suspect Lance and Johan don't want to touch Vino due to his past, but the Kazakhs may be playing hard ball. 

I love the seedy underside of cycling.  Reminds me of the scene in the godfather when they send Tom Hagen out to Hollywood to get Johnny Fontane the part in the movie.   Hopefully Johan doesn't wake up one morning with Contador's head in his bed.  He is his prize stallion after all.

Everyone knows about Garmin-Slipstream rider Steve Cozza's skills on the cobbles, but not everyone knows about his history as a civil rights crusader. 

As a 12 year old kid, Cozza was the subject of a documentary called Scout's Honor about his fight to get the Boy Scouts of America to stop discriminating against gays.  I just watched a Youtube clip from the documentary last night and i was struck with his poise and conviction.  That kid's got heart.  I think its what is going to make him a classics winner some day. 

The youtube vid has been pulled for copyright, but check this site for some backgroud and some pretty funny pics of the young crusader.

http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2001/scoutshonor/

What was the deal with Devolder's special blue podium jersey that he donned for the RvV podium ceremony?  Is this a new design that QS is unveiling at the Ronde or is this just a marketing ploy to get fat old Belgian men to buy one more jersey for their sunday club ride? This sounds like a page out of Rock Racing's playbook.  Those guys have a jersey design for warming up, warming down and two different jerseys for the bus ride home depending if they win or lose.

I just saw a post in another thread where someone said they almost added a rider to their VDS team on the strength of their name.  Awesome!  This got me thinking about a VDS best name all star team.  Yes, I'm talking about a team based solely on the strength of their names. 

Mine would definitely have to start with Staf Schierlinckx, Joost Posthuma, Niki Terpstra, Haimar Zubeldia, Wouter Weylandt and just because its so easy, Dimitri Champion.

But don't confine yourself to riders of the modern era feel free to reach back into the annals of great cycling names.  Greats like Marco Velo and Djumaladine Abdujaborov are calling out to you. 

VDS Best Names of All Time Team!  Who ya got?