Tour de France ping!
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Posted on 08/10/2007 9:30:33 AM PDT by leilani
Tour de France Winner’s Team Will Disband
By IAN AUSTEN
The cycling team of Lance Armstrong and this year's Tour de France winner Alberto Contador said Friday that it will disband after failing to replace the Discovery Channel as its sponsor.
The announcement came at roughly the same that Contador held a news conference in Spain to deny the doping allegations that plagued him even before his victory last month.
In normal circumstances, a Tour de France win should have assured the continuation of the Discovery Channel squad which is owned by Tailwind Sports, a company based in Austin, Texas, partly owned by Armstrong.
But this has been far from a normal year for cycling or the Tour which had three riders test positive for doping practices, a race leader ejected for lying to doping officials and an announcement that another rider tested positive in an out of competition positive test before the race.
[snip]
"This is arguably the most successful sports franchise in the history of sport," Bill Stapleton, Tailwind's general manager, said in a statement. "This was a difficult decision, not made any easier by our recent Tour de France success. 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."
Armstrong, who won the Tour seven times for the team, said in the statement said that Tailwind will continue to operate but shift its attention to other sports.
"Clearly things need to improve on many levels, with a more unified front, before you would see us venture back into cycling," he said.
[snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
It's the end of an era.
Read the velonews article on it earlier today.
Go Slipstream
The team said it will still ride in this year's Tour of Spain and the Tour of Missouri.
Tailwind Sports, which owns and operates Discovery Channel, suggested in its statement that Armstrong's mentor, Johan Bruyneel, will retire. He coached Armstrong through his record seven Tour wins and Contador through his 2007 title, meaning he oversaw victories in eight of the last nine Tours.
"Everybody is really impressed with our program, our team, our results, but the current climate does not allow us to draw in (a sponsor) of the magnitude we are looking for," Bruyneel said on Belgium's VRT network.
"I'm going to miss the staff, riders and the excitement of the races, but not all the infighting between the teams," he said in the team statement. "This team has become my family and it is very sad to think that we will not be together next season."
I like how they dance around the issue of Discovery’s sponsorship - my view is, and Discovery wouldn’t want to admit this, is that Discovery signed on because of Armstrong. Sure, they sponsor the entire team, and it’s good that they still got a winner (not exactly hard considering how many teams lost their stars to doping this Tour) but let’s be blunt, they were after Armstrong’s celebrity, and now that he’s retired, and American interest has dropped, their continued investment is not worth the rewards (or lack thereof).
You’re probably right. And if they were looking for an excuse they surely got one to dump Lance-less cycling - in spades.
Bummer. Go Slipstream!
Wow - just read that Magnus Backstedt (winner of this year’s Paris-Roubaix) is joining Slipstream. They’re going to be a real team! Maybe they can pick up some of the Disco guys.
Do you think they’d want Johan? It just seems like such a waste of talent that he’s retiring.
Don’t forget all the doping must not have been attractive to Discovery.
Tour de France ping!
Please FReepmail 'Aeronaut' if you want on or off the Tour de France 2007 list.
Don't know - that would be interesting. Jonathan Vaughters if the CEO director sportif and part owner (I think) now.
Maybe they can do better than Barloworld as a first year team. I’d settle for two or three stage wins next year.
Now if they would only open the team store so I can get me a hat to wear around town. :-)
Magnus Bäckstedt: The only Swedish rider who has won a stage in the TdF !
(Is anyone else here having a hard time getting "Queen of the Slipstream" out of their head today? Great song!)
No question. Ironic that all the doping didn't phase T-Mobile one bit, they re-upped their sponsorship of one of the druggiest teams in cycling without batting an eye.
Speaking of, anybody know if there's been any definitive confirmation about George Hincapie's reported move to T-Mo? I was kinda hoping there was still a chance Slipstream could snag him.
Having Discovery Channel back out after a TdF win, and no longer sponsor a team partially owned by Lance himself, speaks volumes to me. And now Tailwind is out of the cycling business? The doping scandals are certainly problematic, but doesn’t that seem preposterously kneejerk to anyone else?
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