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Article: AP Interview: Astana's Bruyneel warns against barring Contador from Tour
- Article from:
- AP Worldstream
- Article date:
- April 5, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. (Hide copyright information)
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Alberto Contador's exclusion from the Tour de France could backfire on race organizers because it will deprive crowds of a star attraction, according to Astana team director Johan Bruyneel.
Contador, who joined Astana in October, will not be allowed to defend his Tour title in July since the Amaury Sport Organization banned the Kazakh-owned team from all its races in 2008 after a series of doping violations.
"The ones who will lose the most from this will be the Tour de France themselves," Bruyneel told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "Any sport wants stars, and there are no stars at the moment in cycling.
"There were two stars in the ...