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Full roster at the ready, Discovery has big hopes for '07
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At its customary pre-season training camp in Solvang, California, the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team opened the doors of the Royal Scandinavian Inn to the media on Monday and Tuesday for an opportunity to meet the team’s riders.
In lieu of an official team presentation, which will be offered via video on the team’s Web site, thepaceline.com, team representatives arranged one-on-one interviews with print, Web and video journalists in Solvang, a small Danish settlement in central California. Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, a part owner of the team, was in attendance at the camp but did not schedule interviews.
With the addition of 2005 Tour de France runner-up and 2006 Giro d’Italia winner Ivan Basso and American star Levi Leipheimer, Discovery has bolstered its chances of winning the 2007 Tour de France. Former Phonak rider Uros Murn was signed to help American George Hincapie take that elusive win at the classics, but Murn was struck by a car from behind while training on the roads near his home in Slovenia on January 14; he remains hospitalized and will miss the spring season.
Other key additions to Discovery’s squad include Danish rider Brian Vandborg (formerly CSC); Spaniard Alberto Contador (formerly Astana); and former U.S. Postal Service/Discovery rider Tony Cruz, who spent 2006 with Toyota-United. Gone, however, is two-time Giro d’Italia winner Paolo Savoldelli (to Astana); Belgian classics rider Leif Hoste (to Predictor-Lotto); and Canadian domestique Michael Barry and British classics rider Roger Hammond (both to T-Mobile).
For 2007 the team has adopted a new black-on-blue jersey, with a large satellite photo of the Earth taking up much of the left side and a vertical Discovery logo on the right. Exceptions to the new look include the team’s national champions — Japanese rider Fumiyuki Beppu, who wears the red-and-white of his native country, and Hincapie, the U.S. national champion, who stands out in a sharp red-white-and-blue stars-and-stripes jersey.
During the team’s disappointing showing at last year’s Tour de France, its first in seven years without Armstrong, team director Johan Bruyneel arranged a contract with American Levi Leipheimer, who rode for U.S. Postal during 2000-01. It was widely assumed that Leipheimer would ride as the team’s leader in 2007. However, when the Italian cycling federation dropped an inquiry into Basso’s alleged involvement with the infamous Eufemiano Fuentes, of Operación Puerto fame, Bruyneel jumped at the chance to sign the former CSC rider.
The move upset the rest of the International Professional Cycling Teams (IPCT) group, a business group composed of 20 ProTour teams (Française des Jeux is the sole exception) developed to represent the marketing interests of ProTour teams. While the group has no governing authority, the IPCT voiced its objection to the deal, claiming Bruyneel’s move violated a “gentlemen’s agreement” made on October 25, 2006, not to sign riders implicated in doping investigations.
“I don't see how anyone can stop me from hiring the best rider in the world. I am very happy with my decision,” Bruyneel said in November. “Once all the charges against Ivan were dropped ... we consulted four specialist lawyers to really look into all the rules, and the (ProTour) Code of Conduct. They all came to the same conclusion: legally speaking, nothing can stop us from signing a contract with Basso.”
With the opportunity to see all of the players in one spot, the topic was still hot in Solvang this week. Questions revolved around the Basso deal, how it might ultimately affect leadership roles at the Tour de France and the team’s all-star roster for the upcoming Amgen Tour of California.
One goal
“This team has always been about the Tour,” Bruyneel said in Solvang. “We’ve been very competitive at other races, but the Tour is our race of honor. For me, personally, it’s the only race that can really motivate me at the maximum. I think it’s logical if you’ve won it seven times, it’s nice to win other races, but it’s all about the Tour for me.”
Asked about how the addition of Basso was taken by potential contenders Leipheimer and Yaroslav Popovych, Bruyneel said he explained to them that it was in everyone’s best interests to ride with, not against, the best Tour rider in the peloton.
“I tried to make it clear,” Bruyneel said. “If you’re going to go the Super Bowl – which for us is the Tour de France – we are going to try to win it. If you know that there are riders out there who are maybe stronger than you, it’s better to have them in your own team than ride against them. We’re not going to the Tour to finish second. And I think that their chances get bigger, also. It’s better to have a combination, and I think Ivan, Levi and Popovych are the strongest combination for the win.”
Bruyneel said that Leipheimer had been appointed leader at the Amgen Tour of California, and Tom Danielson would be appointed team leader at the Tour de Georgia, but other than California and Georgia, no other races had been assigned a leader.
“You have to get a little bit into the season and see who is in good condition,” Bruyneel said. “You can start to see here who is good, who is bad, who is okay, but it’s not until you get to the races that you can really determine. The month of February is useful for that. Everyone has done at least one stage race, where we can see what kind of level they are.”
Bruyneel said the team’s roster at the Tour of California will be Leipheimer, Basso, Hincapie, Danielson, Cruz, Vandborg, Jason McCartney and Tomas Vaitkus.
Basso looks to the Giro… and beyond
Though Basso will return to racing in California, the Italian said his schedule wasn’t set in stone, other than his return to the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France. After California he will race the March 26-30 Vuelta a Castilla y Lyon in Spain, and then take it from there.
“It’s important for me to race the Giro because I am Italian,” Basso said. “But also because I didn’t ride half the year last year, I need to do one big tour before the Tour de France. Otherwise it would be one year without a big tour, and I think that’s a lot. I need to be suffering for five climbs, for 20 days, for a 50km time trial. We’ll need to see how the condition is after the Giro, if I need to do some small races or work on the time trial or not race and just have a training camp in the Alps.”
Basso said that he’d had time to speak with Armstrong, Bruyneel and Leipheimer about leadership roles at the Tour, and it had been agreed that Basso would start the Tour as the team leader with the understanding that all that could change if he is not the strongest rider on the squad.
“I am not Lance and I am not sure to win the Tour,” Basso said. “Because of past results, I am surely in a good position, but I have a lot of respect for Levi. If after the first few stages he feels better, for me it’s no problem to help him. If he’s better than me, no problem. There is no other Lance in the group now, but in the last three years, I think that after Lance I was the best. At the start of the Tour, I’ll have the possibility to do my race, with another strong rider like Levi for the podium, too, and we will play two possibilities.”
A revised role
Though many had assumed that Leipheimer, the Tour leader at Gerolsteiner during 2005-06, was to take the reins, Leipheimer said that wasn’t exactly the case.
“I think everyone jumped to this conclusion that when I signed that the team was going to be the same as it was for Lance for me,” Leipheimer said. “But I never expected that. I never said that. The team never said that, and I think people jumped to that conclusion. But I don’t have the track record that Ivan has. He’s going to go into this year’s Tour as a big favorite, probably the biggest favorite.”
At last year’s Amgen Tour of California Leipheimer took the yellow jersey during the prologue in San Francisco and wore it into his hometown of Santa Rosa in front of 50,000 fans, one of the proudest moments in his career. He faltered, however, during the stage 3 time trial in San Jose and finished the race sixth overall.
“In the end [the day in Santa Rosa] kind of threw me off my game,” Leipheimer said. “It was an emotional day, and I didn’t sleep well that night. I made the mistake of sleeping at home, and I was kind of rushing around, doing stuff, and the next day [stage 2] I was good, but I paid for it, I think. I went too hard the day before time trial. I rode aggressively on Sierra Road with Floyd [Landis]. I thought we could put the race away between the two of us. I gave a lot of gas — too much, looking back. But whatever… I had the lead, and I was excited.”
Leipheimer’s 2007 schedule will include California, Paris-Nice, the Vuelta a Castilla y Lyon, the Tour de Georgia, the Dauphiné Libéré and the Tour de France.
“I’m sure after that I’ll do the Tour of Germany,” Leipheimer said. “I love that race, and then maybe the national championships. Maybe it will be my turn to win this year.”
Hincapie looks to the cobbles
Hincapie, winner of last year’s national championship in his hometown of Greenville, South Carolina, hopes to improve on his third place at last year’s Tour of Flanders and to erase the bad memories after his shot at winning Paris-Roubaix was snatched away when his steering tube broke, sending him tumbling to the pave' with a separated shoulder.
The additions of Leipheimer and Basso won’t change Hincapie’s early-season ambitions. As the captain of the classics team, Hincapie will have a strong squad built around him consisting of Cruz, Aussie Matt White, Russian Vladimir Gusev, Lithuanian Tomas Vaitkus, Belgian Stijn Devolder and Spaniard Benjamin Noval.
“I feel like I’ve gotten a little bit stronger every year, especially for the last three years, and I want to capitalize on that,” Hincapie said.
Still, the American knows the Belgian Quick Step-Innergetic squad of Tom Boonen, Peter Van Petegem and Paolo Bettini will be considered the favorite for Flanders and Roubaix.
“[Quick Step] will have a big squad this year at the classics,” Hincapie said. “That’s good, they are used to having the responsibility in those races, but they are bound to make a mistake sooner or later. We’ll just try to put the right guys in the right breakaways and try to make them do more work and have their leaders isolated at the end.
“Bettini has yet to go that great in Flanders, but he has made it an ambition this year, so you’ve always got to watch out for him. Those guys aren’t always going to have the best of days. I mean, look at Boonen — last year at Roubaix he was clearly not on his best form. If we have a super ride we can have two or three guys in the final and make some moves.”
Hincapie will ride in California, where he won two stages last year, and then head to Paris-Nice, Milan-San Remo, Three Days of De Panne (which he won in 2004), Flanders (where he finished second in 2006), Gent-Wevelgem (which he won in 2001), and Roubaix, where he took second in 2005. Following the classics, Hincapie will prepare for his 12th straight Tour de France by racing the Dauphiné.
“I’m still going to focus on the classics, and I think the Tour won’t be quite the same as with Lance,” Hincapie said. “I think I’ll still have some opportunities at the Tour. I’d love to win the prologue, and maybe a stage after that, and then just work for the team. Instead of just focusing on the general classification, I can still do my own thing for some of the stages and then help the team for the general classification.”
Look for an extended feature story on Bruyneel, Basso and Leipheimer in an upcoming issue of VeloNews.
DISCOVERY CHANNEL (USA)
SPONSOR: Multi-channel cable TV network
MANAGER: Bill Stapleton
TEAM DIRECTOR: Johan Bruyneel
ASSISTANTS: Dirk Demol, Viatcheslav Ekimov, Lorenzo Lapage,Sean Yates
EQUIPMENT: Trek bikes, Shimano componentry
WEB SITE: www.thepaceline.com
FULL ROSTER
Ivan Basso (I), 11/26/77
Fumiyuki Beppu (Jpn), 4/10/83
Volodymyr Bileka (Ukr), 2/6/79
Janez Brajkovic (Slo), 12/18/83
Alberto Contador (Sp), 12/6/82
Antonio Cruz (USA), 10/31/71
Steve Cummings (GB), 3/19/81
Tom Danielson (USA), 3/13/78
Stijn Devolder (B), 8/29/79
Vladimir Gusev (Rus), 7/4/82
George Hincapie (USA), 6/29/73
Levi Leipheimer (USA), 10/24/73
Fuyu Li (Chn), 5/9/78
Trent Lowe (Aus), 10/8/84
Egoi Martinez (Sp), 5/15/78
Jason McCartney (USA), 9/3/73
Gianni Meersman (B), 12/5/85
Uros Murn (Slo), 2/9/75
Benjamin Noval (Sp), 1/23/79
Pavel Padrnos (Cz), 12/17/70
Sergio Paulinho (P), 3/25/80
Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr), 1/4/80
José Luis Rubiera (Sp), 1/27/73
Tomas Vaitkus (Lit), 2/4/82
Brian Vandborg (Dk), 12/4/81
Jurgen Van Goolen (B), 11/28/80
Matt White (Aus), 2/22/74
DISCOVERY CHANNEL PRO CYCLING TEAM 2007 RACE SCHEDULE
February 11-15 Vuelta a Mallorca (Spain) 18-22 Vuelta Andalucia (Spain) 18-25 Tour of California (USA) 21-25 Volta Algarve (Portugal)March 3 Omloop Het Volk (Belgium) 4 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne (Belgium) 9-11 Record-Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen (Belgium) 11-18 Paris-Nice (France) 14-20 Tirreno-Adriatico (Italy) 24 Milan-San Remo (Italy) 26-30 Vuelta a Castilla y Leon (Spain) 28 GP Waregem (Belgium) 31 E-3 Harlebeke (Belgium)April 3-5 Three Days of De Panne (Belgium) 8 Tour of Flanders - Ronde von Vlaanderen (Belgium) 9-14 Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco (Spain) 10-13 Circuit de la Sarthe (France) 11 Gent-Wevelgem (Belgium) 15 Paris-Roubaix (France) 17-22 Tour de Georgia (USA) 22 Amstel Gold Race (Netherlands) 25 Fleche Wallone (Belgium) 29 Liege-Bastogne-Liege (Belgium)May 1-6 Tour of Romandy (Switzerland) 8-13 Four Days of Dunkirk (France) 12-6/3 Giro d'Italia (Italy) 21-27 Volta a Catalunya (Spain) 30-6/3 Tour of BelgiumJune 10-17 Criterium du Dauphine Libere (France) 12-16 Tour of Slovenia 16-24 Tour of Switzerland 24 Team Time Trial Eindhoven (Netherlands)July 7-29 Tour de France 9-15 Tour of Austria 25-29 Sachsen Tour (Germany) 26-29 Brixia Tour (Italy)August 4 Clasica San Sebastian (Spain) 8-16 Tour of Germany 12-15 Tour de l'Ain (France) 19 Cyclassics Hamburg (Germany) 22-29 Eneco Tour de Benelux (Netherlands, Germany, Belgium)September 1-23 Vuelta a Espana (Spain) 1-3 USPro Championships 2 GP Plouay (France) 10-16 Tour of Poland 27 World Time Trial Championships (Germany) 30 World Road Race Championships (Germany)October 7 Zurich Championships (Switzerland) 14 Paris-Tours 20 Tour of Lombardy (Italy) 28 Japan Cup
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