Lance Armstrong teams with Kazakhstan for glorious cycling

So Lance Armstrong is, as expected, going to be the next Borat – in a manner of speaking.

His decision to ride for the Astana team, confirmed by several sources today, can be subtitled, “Bicycle Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.”

Armstrong actually wants his return to the sport to benefit a fight against cancer he has spearheaded since surviving the disease and going on to win seven Tour de France titles.

And he will be doing it for a team that is sponsored, in essence, by the government of the former Soviet republic, an oil-rich nation that took over what had been a Spanish cycling team in 2006. The idea was that having the team (named for Kazakhstan’s post-Soviet capital) in races like the Tour de France would build the country’s global image.

That turned into a joke worthy of Borat when the leading Astana rider, Alexander Vinokourov, tested positive for blood doping at the 2007 Tour de France, leading the entire team to withdraw.

That led Astana’s management to bring in Johan Bruyneel, Armstrong’s old team director with U.S. Postal Service and Discovery Channel. But Tour de France management banned Astana from the 2008 race for past doping problems (its previous incarnation, Liberty Segurous-Wurth, was heavily implicated in the Operation Puerto doping scandal), and the team is not assured of an invitation to the 2009 race.

When Armstrong became an American icon, he was riding for American teams. It remains to be seen whether his popularity will be affected by competing for a team bankrolled by a consortium of state-run Kazakh companies.

He had no real choice but Astana, since (1) he was not going to compete against Bruyneel and (2) it would be hard to put together a highly competitive new team from scratch at this point.

But the Astana situation its problematic. Its best current rider, Alberto Contador of Spain, said after winning the Tour of Spain on Sunday that he was ready to leave Astana if Armstrong joined. Contador, who also won the 2008 Tour of Italy and 2007 Tour de France (as a Discovery Channel rider), obviously does not see any benefit in being a support rider for Armstrong.

Astana’s No. 2 stage racer, Levi Leipheimer of the United States, also may not want to return to a domestique role, especially at this stage in his career (Leipheimer turns 35 next month).

And Armstrong’s efforts to dispel the doping suspicions that have followed him for nearly a decade can hardly be made easier by riding for a team with a history of doping, despite the anti-doping system Bruyneel instituted for Astana last year.

But maybe this all will work out for the best, and Lance will sing, as Borat does (to the tune of “The Star Spangled Banner”):

“Kazakhstan, greatest country in the world.”

Philip Hersh covers Olympic sports for The Times and the Chicago Tribune.