ASO ousts Astana

Poor old Astana. Entirely revamped team, almost new management, new riders (potentially with old habits) and significantly less abhorrent kit than past iterations. Nothing says "consolation prize" like the beleaguered Vuelta immediately announcing Astana (in a former life Liberty Seguros) would be welcome at their event...that is unless the rumored purchase of the Vuelta by ASO goes through, in which case Johan might as well sell off the bikes, liquidate the Bontrager/Lightweight wheel collection and hope he can wire enough money back to Kazakhstan that Vino's cousins don't come knocking his door.
Is it a good move for the ASO? Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. If the idea is to make a statement and punish a team who embarrassed them in the past, it’s a hollow victory. If the same riders were on another team, with the same management, but with a different title sponsor and Pro-Tour license…say that of Discovery…they would be welcomed by the ASO as reigning champions. The men who challenged Michael Rasmussen, and his questionable ethics in the mountains of the ’07 Tour would return to cleanly take all the glory the scandal claimed last season.
If, rather, the ASO feels that the riders and management on the current Astana team don’t represent as “clean” a start as they’re promoting, that’s another matter all together. As a business decision, the ASO may view it as less costly to write off a former champion, the best American rider in the Tour and overall one of the strongest Grand Tour teams than risk another incident. Even revamped, Astana features a number of riders and staff that come from a time…not that long ago…when doping was a systematic and accepted practice in the sport of cycling.
For the ASO, which option costs them more in the long run: excluding some of cycling’s biggest names, or running the race with lesser-known riders who have staked their careers on being clean? Unknown riders can always be made into legends, and legends will always let you down.