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Fri 10 Aug, 12:00 am UTC

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Bruyneel's team to stop

By BikeRadar/AFP

Discovery Channel the most successful team in professional cycling over the last 10 years is to disband at the end of the 2007 season, the team's owner and operator Tailwind Sports announced today. This follows strong hints, as reported on BikeRadar, to the US media from within the Discovery set up that the team was likely to fold.

Discovery and its predecessor, the US Postal Service Team, won eight of the last nine Tour de France races - seven consecutively from 1999-2005 with Lance Armstrong - and this year with Alberto Contador of Spain.

Despite all this Tailwind has been unable to sign a title sponsor for the 2008 season. "This was a difficult decision, not made any easier by our recent Tour de France success," team General Manager Bill Stapleton said.

"We were in talks with a number of companies about the opportunity and were confident a new sponsor was imminent. We have chosen, however, to end those discussions." He added: "Tailwind has had an amazing ten years of success with US Postal and more recently Discovery Channel as its title sponsor. This is arguably the most successful sports franchise in the history of sport."

Sports Director Johan Bruyneel has been the driving force behind the Team's success since his arrival to the team in 1999. In nine short years Bruyneel has created a legacy that will live on in cycling history, and his departure from the sport was not an easy choice.

"When I came to direct this team in 1999 I never would have imagined that we could achieve this level of success. It was an amazing time in my life and the lives of all the staff and riders associated with this team," commented Bruyneel.

"I'm going to miss the staff, riders and the excitement of the races, but not all the in fighting between the teams. This Team has become my family and it is very sad to think that we will not be together next season. 2007 has been our most successful season ever and I expect the remainder of the season to continue on that same path."

Team co-owner and seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong has been intimately involved in the team both as a rider and as an owner.

"I do not think you have seen the last of this organization in the sport but clearly things need to improve on many levels, with a more unified front, before you would see us venture back into cycling," Armstrong said.

The Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team will continue to race its full calendar of Pro Tour races including the final grand tour of the season, the Tour of Spain, as well as the upcoming Tour of Missouri.

Bruyneel to retire; Contador surprised

Team sporting director Johan Bruyneel, meanwhile, confirmed he would be retiring from professional cycling at the end of the season.

"I've achieved everything that I could in the sport. I've always said that I wanted to stop on top and I think it's the right time," added Bruyneel, 43, who directed the team to eight of its nine Tour de France wins.

Contador heard the news after he made a statement in Madrid on Friday denying that he had ever used performance enhancing drugs in his career.

"It was a surprise," sources close to the Spanish cyclist told AFP.

The 24-year-old rider hit out a recent doping suspicions against him after he was told this week he is not welcome to participate at the Pro-Tour's Cyclassics event in Hamburg on August 19 after organisers said he had been named in connection with the Operation Puerto blood-doping scandal.

© BikeRadar and AFP 2007

User Comments

There are 8 comments on this post

Showing 1 - 8 of 8 comments

  • I wonder if there were plenty of posssile sponsors but none willing to put up the large amount Amrstrong and Co. wanted.

  • Maybe they are choosing to exit before the proverbial really does hit the fan?

    back to the hedge trimming for Yatesey?

  • i THOUGHT Lynford cHRISTIE HAD GOT AWAY WITH IT BUT THEY GOT HIM, i think Lance will outed one day also

  • What can I say about the cretinous comments re both Christie and Armstrong? If brains were gunpowder...!!!

  • IT"S NOT ABOUT THE BIKE, IT'S ABOUT THE MONEY

    There are some Teams and corporate sponsors that are hanging in there when the times get tough. Hats off to T-Mobile, Rabobank and others that are digging in and supporting cycling:

    "We want to prove a point through consistency and stability which this sport is in great need of," said T-Mobile's board chairman Hamid Akhavan.

    Canadian Michael Barry perhaps sums it up best when he told Velonews "It is great news. The sport is in a bad state and we need teams and sponsors like T-Mobile."

    Armstrong and Co. are more interested in investments and their money than supporting the sport of cycling that has been so good to them. I hear them say “too risky”, “uncertainty”, “too many questions” and so on. I can’t help but feel cheated by this economic decision. It sounds like greed and self- serving motives. They are running away. It is clear what Tailwind Sports represents.

    Sorry Mr. Armstrong this is not a “sad day for American cycling”. What’s that expression, something about if you can’t stand the heat then get out of the kitchen. Take your money and run, we don’t need you and your kind anyway. Cycling will come back stronger and better without you.

    There are no bad bicycles. Just bad bicycle Teams.

  • Team co-owner Armstrong added: "I don't think you have seen the last of this organization in the sport but clearly things need to improve on many levels, with a more unified front, before you would see us venture back into cycling."

    What he said it twice?

    Has Future made all of its proof-readers redundant or something? If this article or the last edition of WhatMTB are anything to go by, it appears so.

    Anyway, regarding the quote itself, I love how Lance feels there needs to be a more unified front. So turning your back on the sport is unified is it?

  • Tailwind has taken an ethical and moral business decision that opens the way for some sort of healing between ASO and the UCI.

    If I was running a team in today's Protour climate, I could not guarantee, in all conscience, that a sponsor could expect full value for their millions of Euros. A team's name (and that of its its sponsors) could be indelibly tarnished by even the slightest hint of doping by a single one of its riders. It may not get to start one or all of the Protour events because of some difference of opinion between the UCI and one or all of the Grand Tour organisers. They could also find themselves caught up in the seemingly personal and endless vendetta between Dick Pound and Hein Verbruggen.

    2008 will see the Protour back to the number of teams that the Grand Tours agreed to support in one of their early deals with the UCI. Unibet should (hopefully) be able to get a start after having to endure the stupid excuses they were given for their exclusions this year.

    Hopefully Tailwind's withdrawal with have positive effects beyond the void left by their formidable involvement in the sport.

  • Unfortunately, Disco has become part of the problem and, is no longer part of the solution. I am a true believer....that if you are passionate about something...if you want to improve something, you have to participate. Disco got off of the "bus" at a time when, if they are truly clean and, supporters of the sport, they would have continued engaging. I have been a rabid fan of cycling for 15 years and, remain a true fan of the sport. I've also been a stead-fast supporter of disco/usps over their tenure. Their decision to step out, was disappointing, to say the least.

    Keith

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