Astana conspiracy?
 

I was thinking about how odd it is that Astana was given a last minute invite to the Giro and I wondered if perhaps it is a ploy to discredit the team. The TdF will not invite them, but they are unhappy that the results will be tainted with two podium finsihers from last year being unable to race this year. So they decide to conspire with Giro officials to make Astana look less competitive by inviting them, at the last minute, to the Giro. Astana and Contador and Leipheimer were not prepared for the race and had not built to it (Contador was on holiday when the call came) and so they will not be in great shpae and are unlikely to do as well as they might have otherwsie done. Them the Tdf can look at them and say "see? These guys are no big deal and so our results are not tainted and it might be that Astnaa now sucks becuase they can't use drugs."

What do you think? Is this possible? Likely?

It's possible. My initial reaction was the Giro wouldn't do anything to help the TDF but this actually makes both races look better.