By now, let’s be honest, we’ve all heard that Levi Leipheimer is out of this year’s Tour, a tough break for the Californian (no pun intended). Moreover, we’ve heard that this hurts Lance’s chances at a record eighth Tour championship, with his right-hand man on the hurt wagon.

But does it go deeper than that?

When you looked at Astana’s roster coming into this year’s Tour — and you looked past the big four, Armstrong, Leipheimer, Alberto Contador and Andres Kloden (can’t not include a two-time runner-up in there) — the rest of the team was full of domestiques whose loyalties might determine exactly which of Astana’s big boys ended up on top, if any.

In Leipheimer and old boy Yaroslav Popovych, Armstrong had two top aides who, if the proverbial line were drawn in the sand, would cross with the Texan. Kloden, Paulinho and Dimitry Muravyev were obviously wild cards who could go either way, but it’s awfully hard to accept the idea that they would turn against the man who was one bad check away from financing Team Astana by himself.

But now, with Leipheimer out of the picture, Armstrong might find himself more or less alone, should it come to a high-noon showdown with his Spanish teammate.

It might come to pass that none of this matters, and we at PBT wouldn’t be at all sad if Big George shocked us all and stood atop the podium in Paris in a week’s time. But we aren’t holding our breath.

Alberto Nocentini’s ride thus far has been impressive, and a nice story. But Astana has too many horses, and too much talent, to be denied at least one more legitimate shot to take firm control of this race.

So that line in the sand is getting deeper, and longer, and it’s time for Astana’s other six to make their choice.