Team Discovery Channel Announces Tour of Spain Roster

News & Results

08/16/2006| 0 comments
by P.J. Rabice
Tom Danielson leads Floyd Landis in the 2006 Tour de Georgia. Photo copyright Ben Ross/Roadcycling.com/<A HREF="http://www.benrossphotography.com" TARGET=_BLANK>www.benrossphotography.com</A>.
Tom Danielson leads Floyd Landis in the 2006 Tour de Georgia. Photo copyright Ben Ross/Roadcycling.com/www.benrossphotography.com.

Team Discovery Channel Announces Tour of Spain Roster

Tom Danielson leads strong squad into final Grand Tour of 2006.

Team Discovery Channel announced its roster of riders that will compete in the 2006 Vuelta Espana / Tour of Spain.  The nine riders are: Michael Barry, Manuel Beltran, Janez Brajkovic, Tom Danielson, Stijn Devolder, Vladimir Gusev, Benoit Joachim, Egoi Martinez and Jurgen Van Goolen.  Two reserve riders have also been listed: Volodymyr Bileka and Gennady Mikhaylov.  The 61st edition of the 2006 Vuelta Espana begins on Saturday August 26th in Malaga and ends on Sunday September 17th in Madrid. The route consists of 21 stages - 1 prologue time trial, 2 individual time trials, 7 mountain stages and 11 flat/intermediate stages - covering a total of 3,120 kilometers.

Sports Director Johan Bruyneel has chosen a Discovery Channel squad that is a mix of seasoned veterans and rising talent.  On the team selection Johan Bruyneel stated, ?Selecting this team was not easy for me as we have a lot of guys that are riding very strong at the moment but I feel that we have a very solid team in place that will work well together. Tom Danielson is set to be our leader for this race and I believe he has prepared very well. With the team that we have to support him I am confident that he will be able to finish very high up in the overall classification.?

The Discovery Channel Team looks to improve upon the achievements of their two previous grand tours of 2006 where they wore the leader?s jersey and won stages in both races.  The Vuelta squad has a number of riders that have had individual success throughout the season.  Below are highlights from the nine-rider squad in 2006.

Michael Barry - 2nd place Eindhoven Team Time Trial, 3rd place stage & 3rd place overall Sachsen Tour.

Manuel Beltran - 2nd place stage and King of the Mountains at Castilla y Leon & 4th place overall at Tour de l'Ain.

Janez Brajkovic - 5th place overall and Best Young Rider at Tour de Georgia, 3rd place on stage and 5th place overall at Tour of Catalunya & 4th place stage and 5th place overall at Tour de Suisse.

Tom Danielson - 1st place on stage, 2nd place on stage and 2nd place overall at Tour de Georgia & 2nd place on stage, 3rd place on stage and overall winner at Tour of Austria.

Stijn Devolder - 3rd place on stage at 3 Days of DePanne, 1st place on stage at Tour of Belgium & 2nd place overall at Eindhoven Team Time Trial.

Vladimir Gusev - 4th place (later disqualified) at Paris-Roubaix, 2nd place overall at Eindhoven Team Time Trial & 1st place on stage, 4th place overall and Best Young Rider at Tour of Germany.

Benoit Joachim - 2nd place overall at Eindhoven Team Time Trial & 1st place at Luxembourg National Time Trial Championships.

Egoi Martinez ? 3rd place on stage at Castilla y Leon, 2nd place overall at Eindhoven Team Trial, 3rd place on stage at Dauphine Libere & Most Aggressive rider on stage 4 at Tour de France.

Jurgen Van Goolen - 2nd place on stage at Tour de Suisse.

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