Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team

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The Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team was a professional racing team.

The US Postal Service stopped sponsoring their team in 2004. The Discovery Channel took over sponsorship in June 2004 in time for the new UCI ProTour

On February 10 2007 Discovery Channel decided not renew its sponsorship of the team at the end of the 2007 season.[1] The decision to end its sponsorship is believed to be related to the sacking of Discovery Networks president Billy Campbell by David Zaslav, the new president of Discovery Communications the same day.

On 10 August 2007 Tailwind Sports, who are the team's licence holders, said the team would stop racing at the end of the year<. They could not find a new sponsor and blamed bad publicity about doping in the 2007 Tour de France.

Members[change | change source]

The most famous member of the Discovery Channel team was Lance Armstrong who won seven Tours de France before he retired in 2005.

Current members of the team, such as 2007 Tour de France winner Alberto Contador, 3rd placed Levi Leipheimer and George Hincapie all had to find new teams. Hincapie joined Team T-Mobile. Many think Contador may have trouble finding a new team because of rumours about being involved in the very big Operation Puerto doping scandal.

2007 squad[change | change source]

As of April 30, 2007.[2]

Rider Date of birth
 Fumiyuki Beppu (JPN) (1983-04-10) April 10, 1983 (age 36)
 Volodymyr Bileka (UKR) (1979-02-06) February 6, 1979 (age 40)
 Janez Brajkovič (SLO) (1983-12-18) December 18, 1983 (age 35)
 Alberto Contador (ESP) (1982-12-06) December 6, 1982 (age 36)
 Antonio Cruz (USA) (1971-10-31) October 31, 1971 (age 47)
 Steve Cummings (GBR) (1981-03-19) March 19, 1981 (age 38)
 Tom Danielson (USA) (1978-03-13) March 13, 1978 (age 41)
 Allan Davis (AUS) (1980-07-27) July 27, 1980 (age 39)
 John Devine[3] (USA) (From July 2007) (1985-11-02) November 2, 1985 (age 33)
 Stijn Devolder (BEL) (1979-08-29) August 29, 1979 (age 40)
 Vladimir Gusev (RUS) (1982-07-04) July 4, 1982 (age 37)
 George Hincapie (USA) (1973-06-29) June 29, 1973 (age 46)
 Levi Leipheimer (USA) (1973-10-24) October 24, 1973 (age 46)
 Fuyu Li (CHN) (1978-05-09) May 9, 1978 (age 41)
Rider Date of birth
 Trent Lowe (AUS) (1984-10-08) October 8, 1984 (age 35)
 Egoi Martínez (ESP) (1978-05-15) May 15, 1978 (age 41)
 Jason McCartney (USA) (1973-09-03) September 3, 1973 (age 46)
 Gianni Meersman (BEL) (1985-12-05) December 5, 1985 (age 33)
 Uroš Murn (SLO) (1975-02-09) February 9, 1975 (age 44)
 Benjamín Noval (ESP) (1979-01-23) January 23, 1979 (age 40)
 Pavel Padrnos (CZE) (1970-12-17) December 17, 1970 (age 48)
 Sérgio Paulinho (POR) (1980-03-26) March 26, 1980 (age 39)
 Yaroslav Popovych (UKR) (1980-01-04) January 4, 1980 (age 39)
 José Luis Rubiera (ESP) (1973-01-27) January 27, 1973 (age 46)
 Tomas Vaitkus (LTU) (1982-02-04) February 4, 1982 (age 37)
 Jurgen Van Goolen (BEL) (1980-11-28) November 28, 1980 (age 38)
 Dennis Dunse Jensen (DEN) (1995-03-15) March 15, 1995 (age 24)
 Matt White (AUS) (1974-02-22) February 22, 1974 (age 45)

References[change | change source]

  1. ↑ George, Sue (2007-02-10). "Discovery Channel to end sponsorship". Cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 2007-02-10. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ↑ "Team Discovery Channel Challenge 2007–THE RIDERS". Retrieved 2007-02-13.
  3. ↑ "Discovery Channel finalises '07 roster". Cyclingnews.com. 2007-01-16. Retrieved 2007-02-13. Check date values in: |date= (help)

Other websites[change | change source]

Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team
U.S. Postal Service Pro Cycling Team
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