Astana says Contador stays despite UCI ruling. Bozos, part 2.

Kafka. He understands Astana-speak.

We bring you an important non-news flash.

Nikolai Proskurin, a spokesman for the Kazakh Cycling Federation, says that two-time Tour de France winner will ride for Astana in 2010. A meaningless statement and certainly not news or fact. Although we are giving it thumbs up for humor.

It was more accurately a desire, a wish and desperate hope that Contador wouldn’t leave now that the UCI has cleared Contador to exit Astana “without notice or liability for damages.”

According the governing body of the sport, Astana no longer has a legal hold on the Spanish rider. And lawyers are about the only creatures who could force Contador to stay in the snakepit with Alexander Vinokourov. Alberto has a fondness for birds, but he’s not big on snakes, especially the vino-viper.

Everyone seems to understand the ruling but Mr. Proskurin. “Certain people, it is unclear who, have completely dreamed this up, but there has been no occasion on which he has made an official statement on this issue,” he said. Yes, the bozos are at it again.

Note to Federation: Your ship sank last week. Don’t bother looking for survivors.

This must be one of those black comedy situations that happen in the former Soviet Republic. The kind of thing that routinely occurs on the team we like to call Astanastan. A goof-ball kind of place where the paperwork never gets down, the checks always bounce and the kafka-speak goes on forever.

Does the bold, posturing statement from the Kazakh Cycling Federation carry any weight? Nope. Was it amusing in a clueless way that reminded us of low-level, bumbling communist bureaucrats from the 70’s? Yes.