Boy how things changed once Lance got on the roads of France and the dollar signs of a "potential 8th win" clouded his judgement and past statements. Simple fact is this. It was Alberto's team and Alberto's '09 Tour to win BEFORE Lance come out of retirement. We all know how long it took to put this Radio Shack thing together. Look at the last sentence in the above article. A "new team based around Lance" (title sponsor was assumed to be Nike back then) was already in the works and Bruyneel was most-likely already part of it. Bruyneel's 8-finger solute indicated what was to come. Lance's 7 tour wins got Bruyneel where he is today and an 8th tour win sure would have put more money in his pocket than Alberto winning his 2nd.
I Pulled this from PezCycling News this morning:
"..Vino has also assured Alberto Contador that the team want him to stay on for another two years and that he (Contador) will remain as the squad’s team leader and Vino will merely be there to be a kind of super-domestique. Now, I wonder where Contador has heard that before?"
