Team Discovery Disbands….Leaving Interesting Questions
Team Discovery has had problems securing a new Sponsor for the 2008 season. Discovery Channel announced earlier this year that they were not renewing the contract to sponsor after the 2007 season. The team has been looking for over six months, but doping stories in cycling have hurt their chances of landing a sponsor willing to hand out $10-$15 million per year. Rumors were floating that Lance Armstrong would be asked to personally sponsor the team. Perhaps his LiveStrong foundation would be the new sponsor. All the rumors were put to bed in an announcement this morning. Discovery Channel will race the Vuelta and Tour of Missouri, after which they will call it quits.
Discovery is no more..blah….blah….blah. What does that really mean? It means that the only U.S. based Pro Tour team is leaving the peloton, but not many of them were American anyways, so does it really matter? I don’t think so. Teams fold all the time. The real questions remaining surround equipment sponsorships and the cyclists themselves.
The cyclists- Team discovery has three of the top ten finishers in the Tour de France this year. They have won several key races this season, and I am sure that there are phone calls flying all over the place right now trying to land people like Alberto Contador, Levi Leipheimer, Yaroslav Popovych, and Tom Danielson. These guys are good enough to make a team a contender next year.
The Equipment- Wow, who is going to be riding a Trek next year in the Pro Tour? As it stands now, nobody will. I assume that Trek is working hard to get back into the peloton even as I am writing this article. Winning tours doesn’t do anything but help sell road bikes, and that is what Trek likes to do. They have just re-designed the top of the line bike that is ridden by the pros, so I think they have a vested interest in getting affiliated with a new team as quickly as possible. You might recall that BMC, the bike that Floyd Landis rode to victory, quit sponsoring Astana just a few weeks ago. I am sure that BMC is also looking for a new team. This leaves some top notch equipment open to the different pro squads.
ProTour Teams- The absense of Team Discovery Channel and rumors of Astana not being included as a Pro Tour team leaves a few openings for new teams. It is no secret that Team Slipstream Powered by Chipotle will be a Pro Tour team in 2009, but maybe they will be Pro Tour by next year. What about Barloworld? They are tearing up the tier 2 schedule and had a great Tour de France. I expect to see both Slipstream and Barloworld next year. They are much more exciting teams than Discovery ever was. They have shown to be extremely agressive and fun to watch. I can’t wait for 2008.
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