Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team
Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team (until 2004: US Postal Service Pro Cycling Team ) was a cycling team from the USA .
organization
The team was founded in 1996 under the name US Postal Service Pro Cycling Team, mostly with staff from the previously disbanded Motorola team . After the US Postal Service withdrew from cycling at the end of the 2004 season, the American television station Discovery Channel took over sponsorship of the team with a budget of 12 million US dollars / year. In the sporting and economic area, the leaders of Lance Armstrong's team succeeded in extending the contracts of most of the racing cyclists and also in signing a few new drivers. As with US Postal, the team's sporting director was Johan Bruyneel from Belgium . Since November 2006 there has been a cooperation with the Chinese Marco Polo Cycling Team , which rode under the name Discovery Channel-Marco Polo in the 2007 season.
On December 8, 2006, the UCI ProTeams Association (IPCT) decided to exclude the Discovery Channel team in a forthcoming meeting on January 11, 2007, as the commitment of Ivan Basso, who was involved in the Fuentes doping scandal , would constitute a violation of the code of ethics. However, with 8 to 7 votes, the members decided against exclusion. Since new incriminating material appeared against Basso in April 2007 , he was first suspended by the team management and a few days later terminated his two-year contract himself.
Discovery Channel withdrew from cycling as a sponsor in late 2007. Since the team could not find a new sponsor, it was dissolved at the end of 2007. Bruyneel and many drivers switched to the Kazakh team Astana .
Sporting profile and doping
The team was best known for the six victories at the Tour de France , which Lance Armstrong brought in from 1999 to 2004 in the US Postal jersey and a seventh success in 2005 for Discovery Channel (retrospectively disallowed for doping). During this period, team boss Bruyneel and Armstrong systematically built up a team that, like no other team before, was completely and exclusively geared towards supporting Armstrong in the Tour de France. Since Armstrong's first victory, the core of the team has been all-rounder George Hincapie and time trial specialist Vyacheslav Jekimov . To this end, strong climbers like Roberto Heras , José Luis Rubiera , Manuel Beltrán and José Azevedo were hired as “noble helpers” every year . Top professionals with their own ambitions left the team. B. Tyler Hamilton , Levi Leipheimer , Tom Boonen and finally Roberto Heras. The team’s important role in Lance Armstrong’s victories is illustrated by the US Postals’s strong placement in the Tour’s team time trial , which they won in 2003, 2004 and 2005.
In October 2012 the US anti-doping agency USADA published the results of its doping investigation in the Armstrong case. The report stated that the team had operated the most demanding, professional and successful doping program in sports history. The report included incriminating statements from eleven former drivers including Frankie Andreu , Tyler Hamilton, George Hincapie, Floyd Landis , Levi Leipheimer, describing the team's use of erythropoietin (EPO), blood transfusions, testosterone and other prohibited substances and methods. On October 22nd, the UCI , the World Cycling Federation , canceled all of Armstrong's doping results since August 1st, 1998, including all seven Tour de France victories.
2006 season
Successes in the ProTour
| date | run | driver |
|---|---|---|
| April 25 |
 Prologue Tour de Romandie
|
 Paolo Savoldelli
|
| May 6th |
Prologue Giro d'Italia
|
Paolo Savoldelli
|
| July 14th |
 12th stage Tour de France
|
 Yaroslav Popovych
|
| August 1st |
 Prologue Germany Tour
|
 Vladimir Gusev
|
| 20th of August |
   4th stage ENECO Tour
|
 George Hincapie
|
| September 4th |
 1st stage Tour of Poland
|
Max van Heeswijk
|
| September 6th |
 11th stage Vuelta a España
|
Egoi Martínez
|
| 13.september |
17th stage Vuelta a España
|
Tom Danielson
|
Successes in the Continental Circuits
| date | run | driver |
|---|---|---|
| 28-30 March |
Overall ranking Three days of De Panne
|
Leif Hoste
|
| April 19th |
2nd stage Tour de Georgia
|
Yaroslav Popovych
|
| April 22 |
5th stage Tour de Georgia
|
Tom Danielson
|
| 3rd-9th July |
 Overall ranking of the Tour of Austria
|
Tom Danielson
|
| 19.-23. July |
Overall ranking of the Saxony Tour
|
Vladimir Gusev
|
| August 30th |
 2nd stage Tour of Britain
|
Roger Hammond
|
| September 3 |
American road championship |
George Hincapie
|
2007 season
Successes in the ProTour
| date | run | driver |
|---|---|---|
| March, 15 |
4th stage Paris – Nice
|
Alberto Contador
|
| March 16 |
5th stage Paris – Nice
|
Yaroslav Popovych
|
| March 18th |
7th stage Paris – Nice
|
Alberto Contador
|
| 11-18 March |
Overall ranking Paris – Nice
|
Alberto Contador
|
| 23. May |
3rd stage Tour of Catalonia
|
 Allan Davis
|
| June 22 |
7th stage Tour de Suisse
|
Vladimir Gusev
|
| 22nd of July |
14th stage Tour de France
|
Alberto Contador
|
| July 28th |
19th stage Tour de France
|
Levi Leipheimer
|
| 7-29 July |
Overall ranking Tour de France
|
Alberto Contador
|
| September 15th |
14th stage Vuelta a España
|
Jason McCartney
|
Successes in the Continental Circuits
Disposals-Additions
Team 2007
Placements in UCI rankings
UCI world rankings
| season | Team ranking | Driver ranking |
|---|---|---|
| 1995 | 38. |
Darren Baker (371.)
|
| 1996 | 23. |
Tomasz Brożyna (152.)
|
| 1997 | 16. |
Vyacheslav Yekimov (15.)
|
| 1998 | 15th |
Lance Armstrong (25th)
|
| 1999 | 13. |
Lance Armstrong (7th)
|
| 2000 | 11. |
Lance Armstrong (4th)
|
| 2001 | 9. |
Lance Armstrong (4th)
|
| 2002 | 3. |
Lance Armstrong (2nd)
|
| 2003 | 10. |
Lance Armstrong (8th)
|
| 2004 | 6th |
Lance Armstrong (7th)
|
UCI ProTour
| season | Team ranking | Driver ranking |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 8th. |
Lance Armstrong (5th)
|
| 2006 | 4th |
George Hincapié (14.)
|
| 2007 | 7th |
Alberto Contador (3rd)
|
literature
- Johan Bruyneel with Bill Strickland: The Art of Victory - My success stories of eight victories in the Tour de France . Sportwelt Verlag , Betzenstein 2009, ISBN 978-3-941297-01-2
Web links
- The 2006 team in the Radsportseiten.net database
- The 2007 team in the Radsportseiten.net database
Individual evidence
- ↑ live-radsport.ch of January 12, 2007: Discovery Channel is not excluded - a new chance for Jan Ullrich and Co?
- ↑ netzeitung.de of April 30, 2007: Basso terminates contract with Discovery Channel ( Memento of July 4, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ radsport-news.com from September 3, 2007: Discovery manager Bruyneel has an offer from Astana
- ↑ radsport-news.com of October 25, 2007: Discovery Quartet to Astana
- ^ Matt Slater: BBC Sport - Lance Armstrong: Usada report reveals doping evidence . Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved October 10, 2012.
- ↑ US Postal Service Pro Cycling Team Investigation , USADA, 2012 October, retr 2012 10 14
- ^ Lance Armstrong stripped of all seven Tour de France wins by UCI . In: bbc.co.uk , October 22, 2012. Retrieved October 26, 2012.