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Discovery Channel unveiled the nine-rider cast that will try to rekindle the Lance Armstrong glory years when it heads to London for the start of the 2007 Tour de France. As expected, Levi Leipheimer got a full vote of confidence from Discovery sport director Johan Bruyneel on Wednesday, and will lead America’s lone ProTour team at the Tour.
“He’s capable of being on the podium,” claimed Bruyneel during an hour-long telephone-conference call that included cycling and mainstream media from both sides of the Atlantic.
Bruyneel said he wasn’t concerned with Leipheimer’s failure to defend his title at mid-June’s Dauphiné Libéré, and instead believed it showed Leipheimer had not peaked too early, and was on course to be in top form for the crux of the three-week Tour, that runs July 7 to 29.
Leipheimer concurred, saying that it shows his form is still improving. “The last two years I might have been better at this time,” he said. “But in four weeks, when we get to the big mountains of the Tour, the plan is that I will be better this year than the last two years.”
Backing Leipheimer’s bid to become the fourth American to win the Tour overall will be a mixture of experienced veterans and riders new to the Tour. George Hincapie, Egoi Martinez, Benjamin Noval and Yaroslav Popovych have ridden 19 Tours between them. Alberto Contador has raced just one Tour (two years ago), while Vladimir Gusev, Sergio Paulinho and Tomas Vaitkus are all starting the Tour for the first time.
| 2007 Tour de France |
| Levi Leipheimer (USA)George Hincapie (USA)Alberto Contador (Sp)Benjamin Noval (Sp)Egoi Martinez (Sp)Sergio Paulinho (P)Tomas Vaitkus (Lit)Vladimir Gusev (Rus)Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) |
For U.S. cycling fans, the notable omission from that list is Tom Danielson, who battled stomach problems in May and June, causing Bruyneel to lose confidence in the climbing specialist who had entered the 2007 season expecting to ride his first career Tour.
“Tom had some physical problems before the Tour of Catalonia and the Dauphiné, and those were races that I had told Tom I expected him to be on a high level for,” explained Bruyneel, who had hinted that the American was on the Tour team bubble as far back as April’s Tour de Georgia. “Due to his physical problems, he couldn’t perform as he wanted.”
Bruyneel added that the team he chose is stocked with “experience and horsepower” and that it would have been difficult to leave any of those riders out in favor of Danielson.
“It was a difficult choice,” the Belgian director admitted. “But I chose based on security and experience.”
Bruyneel figures his team will need all that experience, plus a bit of luck, if it’s to propel Leipheimer into the yellow jersey in Paris. Standing in the way will be the Kazakhstan-based Astana team and its powerful leader Alexander Vinokourov.
“He is a very aggressive rider who in the past attacked maybe when no one expected,” Bruyneel said. “This year I think he will still be aggressive, but not like before because now he is the big favorite. I expect him to be more conservative, and only really attack in moments that people expect him to attack, or when he sees his rivals in trouble.”
Bruyneel likened the 2007 Astana team, which also includes last year’s third-place finisher, German Andreas Klöden, to the U.S. Postal Service teams of the Armstrong era.
“When Lance was the big favorite and our team was the big favorite, everybody else was just trying to follow and wait for a weak moment,” he said. “Vino’ is not as far ahead of the competition as Lance was in his best days, but I still see a similar scenario playing out.”
Beyond the Astana duo and Leipheimer, Bruyneel figures Cadel Evans (Predictor-Lotto), Vladimir Karpets (Caisse d'Epargne), Denis Menchov (Rabobank) and Carlos Sastre (CSC) could all be in the mix for a top-five finish.
“And if you are in the top five, there is a chance you can win,” he added.
As for where the ’07 Tour will be decided, Leipheimer downplayed the significance of the two time trails and guessed that the Pyrénées would be the deciding factor.
“I [pre]rode all the important mountain stages with Contador, Gusev and Martinez,” the California resident explained. “Stage 8 to Tignes in the Alps will be long and hard, with big climbs. But I’d say the Pyrénées are harder than the Alps this year because of amount of climbing, the length, and that they come in the third week.”
The American specifically pointed to stage 14 from Mazamet to Plateau de Beille, which has two hors categorie climbs including a summit finish. “The Tour could definitely be won on that day,” Leipheimer contended.
As for the pair of individual time trials, the Discovery leader figures it will be mostly about limiting losses. “If you want to win the Tour or be on the podium, you can’t have bad time trials,” he said. “You don’t have to win, but you can’t have bad days. But in the end I think the mountains will be a bigger factor. If you have a bad day or crack, you lose minutes. In the TTs, if you’re a decent time trialist and have a bad day, maybe you lose a minute and a half.”
On the dope deal
When the Q&A session made the inevitable turn to doping issues, Bruyneel affirmed that all his riders would sign the UCI’s recently unveiled pledge that would see any rider implicated in a doping affair given the usual penalties plus forfeit a year’s salary.
“I was at the meeting in Geneva when the UCI presented that document to the teams,” said Bruyneel. “It was a surprise because no one had been consulted, but I think all the team managers would agree that a positive sign had to be given. At the same time we have heard that the document has been modified, because the document that was first out there was not legally binding. So now there are some lawyers looking at it. But it will ultimately be signed by all our riders before the Tour de France. It’s a message that we want to send out.”
The Discovery boss added that he felt the pledge was just a small step, and that further action was necessary if the sport was to ever extricate itself from its current malaise.
“Ninety percent of the people involved [in pro cycing] is an ex-bike rider, including team managers to mechanics and even people working within the UCI -- myself included,” he said. “We are good at doing the job on the sport side, but cycling is lacking expert vision on the whole picture. We need to bring in an expert in solving the crisis situation, maybe a business guru. The people looking at the problems now are not going in the right direction. We need new organization with broader vision.”
Bruyneel also took a shot at the much-publicized internal doping control programs that CSC and T-Mobile have instituted this year, calling them in-part publicity stunts.
“Maybe this is not smart for me to say, but it’s two teams that dealt with big scandals last year and it’s not a coincidence that those two teams have started those anti-doping programs,” said Bruyneel, making a not-so veiled reference to Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich. “I’m not saying the programs are not useful, but I don’t see what else those teams can do compared to all the testing the riders have to go through on a normal basis. The testing of the UCI is very strict. Personally I think the biggest motivation is to get their credibility back.
“Discovery is also doing internal testing but we are not talking about it,” Bruyneel continued. “We don’t feel the need to talk about that. I can say that our testing has shown in the last 12 years we have never had a positive case and we have never had a case where the rider tested for abnormal blood values. That is a pretty unique track record.”
Despite that seemingly untainted record, Bruyneel admitted that cycling’s ongoing drug problem has hindered the search for a new title sponsor.
“The general atmosphere is not the best it’s been,” he understated. “There have been a lot of scandals that for sure have had a negative impact. Does it impact our sponsorship search? Yes it does.”
None of this would take away from another from Tour win for the American squad, though. Despite the absence of former contenders Basso, Ullrich and last year’s winner, Floyd Landis, among others, Leipheimer said the luster of the race still shines bright in his eyes.
“It’s unlike any sporting event in world,” he said. “Winning the Tour de France is always a huge achievement. Every rider who takes the start line is super strong. It’s the 200 best riders in the world, and all of them are in great condition. Everyone is fighting to be in front and fighting to be in breaks. It’s not any easier because one or two riders aren’t there.”
Green team
At the outset of the conference call, team marketing manger P.J. Rabice announced that beginning at the prologue in London, the team’s jerseys, shorts, helmets and cars would all be accented in green in deference to a new environmental awareness program.
“The main goal is making a long-term commitment to offsetting 100 percent of the carbon emissions from all caravan vehicles,” Rabice explained. “Even though the program will officially launch on July 5, we will back-date to January and make the team completely carbon neutral.”
