Out of contract with T-Mobile at the end of the season, Vinokourov has made no secret of the fact that he is being courted by some of the biggest-name teams in the peloton, including Discovery Channel. On Saturday, he revealed that, having politely declined to consider offers from French teams Ag2r and Cofidis, his shortlist is down to two. "The only team which could make me leave T-Mobile is Discovery Channel. I'll certainly be making a choice between those two," he revealed. Vinokourov is of the opinion that "there simply aren't the prerequisites for hoping to win the Tour [in a French team]."
If Discovery wants Vino, where does that leave Popovych? I wonder if he's looking around too. He's supposed to be the heir apparent for the Tour. If Discovery is recruiting another heir apparent, he'd be wise to consider if he wants to be a domestique in the Discovery tradition, or a GC leader for another team.
Vino is 32 this year and Popo 24. By the time he´s in his prime (say 26-27) Vino will be 34-35. Not everybody has capacity of Eki. So, I don´t see any collision of ambitions.
Out of contract with T-Mobile at the end of the season, Vinokourov has made no secret of the fact that he is being courted by some of the biggest-name teams in the peloton, including Discovery Channel. On Saturday, he revealed that, having politely declined to consider offers from French teams Ag2r and Cofidis, his shortlist is down to two. "The only team which could make me leave T-Mobile is Discovery Channel. I'll certainly be making a choice between those two," he revealed. Vinokourov is of the opinion that "there simply aren't the prerequisites for hoping to win the Tour [in a French team]."
The same could be said about T-Mobile since 1997 !
