Discovery
Channel has lost Lance Armstrong, but it remains able to win races. The American
squad, which won last year’s Tour de France and Giro d’Italia, expects to
continue winning. Everyone who is associated with the team believes that. In a
January 24 press conference, Team manager Bill Stapleton said, “We’ve created
the best cycling team in the world. Lance kept his promise [to win a seventh
Tour], and now it’s time [for us] to keep ours. “We’re gonna be the best team in
the world going forward.”
Photo copyright Discovery Channel.
Stapleton
was not alone with his confidence. The riders radiated it. Tom Danielson, whom
Discovery is grooming to become a stage race champion, stated, “I’m on the best
team with the best riders and the best staff. I push as hard as I can.” George
Hincapie, Discovery’s classics man who finished 14th in last year’s Tour while
winning Stage 15, added, “I think we’re gonna have a very good team.”
With
history’s greatest Tour rider gone, what are the team’s ambitions for that race
and for the rest of the season? Discovery directeur sportif Johan Bruyneel
expects the squad to make its presence felt throughout the season. “The goals,”
Bruyneel said, “remain unchanged, even without Lance. We have a lot of good
riders. We have the winner of the Giro and future winners of the Tour.
Hopefully, we can win a spring classic. Paolo Savoldelli will defend the Giro.
Then, of course, the Tour.” Bruyneel added that Hincapie, Jose Azevedo, Yaroslav
Popovych, and Savoldelli “are able to be in the top 10” at the Tour and that the
race will decide who leads the team. According to Bruyneel, the team will have
the same training regimen that it has had for the past seven years. That regimen
is designed to have the squad at its peak during the Tour de France.
Photo copyright Discovery Channel.
Although
Lance Armstrong is no longer an active rider, he is under contract with
Discovery, and he still has close ties with the team and its riders. “There is,”
Armstrong said, “still a friendship, still a process to continue to grow the
team. With Johan Bruyneel. We have incredible forces in the classics. We won the
Giro last year, which is often forgotten. None of that will change. The only
thing that will change is the Tour de France. I have full faith in Johan and in
these guys.” Armstrong added that the team’s best strategy for the Tour is “to
downplay our chances…That’s the perfect way to ride the race. The Tour is about Jan Ullrich, Ivan
Basso….”
How will
Discovery fare without Armstrong? Will the American squad win the Giro again?
Will it continue to dominate the Tour? Check in at Roadcycling.com and
follow the team between now and July!
