The Cold War Is Over...Trek Shacks Up With Astana !

I was on my regular Monday group ride today, which consisted of only two people, though it regularly draws eager crowds upwards of eight or nine, sometimes including a girl or two, and the peleton and I began a discussion on the state of pro cycling.

After much debate on the wheel sucking abilities of Cadel Evans and who would be more fun to party with, Mario Cipollini or Marco Pantani, we squared off on whether Trek signing with Astana was worthy of an old fashioned embargo "Cuban" style.

Though they are officially a Swiss team, Astana is funded by a conglomerate of investors from Kazakhstan (a.k.a. Russkies). Trek is an American company who previously supplied American teams U.S. Postal Service and Discovery Channel on their way to seven Tour de France wins. (Thank you Lance "I never doped" Armstrong)

The marriage of these two just seems wrong to me. It's the same thing as the marriage of Olympians Bart Connor and Nadia Comaneci. (I know she's Romanian, but back then it was all the same) It's... Un American.