The End Of Discovery Channel

[baloom]

Word is that the Big Blue Machine (Tailwind) has not been able to nail down a new sponsor for 2008 with the departure of Discovery Channel. The riders have been handed their walking papers and some are already signed with new teams (Hincapie, Leipheimer) for 08. I for one will mourn the passing of arguably the best team of all time in pro cycling (and largely the reason that I began watching and following pro-cycling again in the late 90's).

[nouseforaname]

Old news (http://bb.nsmb.com/showthread.php?t=100089)

Getting out while the gettings good.

[dEVoRider]

the best team is CSC, there isnt really a best team of all time, mapei maybe.

disco really had only lance, without lance they wouldnt be that great.

[dEVoRider]

the best team is CSC, there isnt really a best team of all time, mapei maybe.

disco really had only lance, without lance they wouldnt be that great.

[XXX_er]

the best team is CSC, there isnt really a best team of all time, mapei maybe.

disco really had only lance, without lance they wouldnt be that great.


I duno I heard lance say he had the best team under him,wouldnt he know?

[sanrensho]

disco really had only lance, without lance they wouldnt be that great.

Yeah, Disco only managed to place their riders 1st, 3rd and 8th in this year's TdF. And take the White Jersey and Team comp. And 2nd and 3rd for Mountains.

Weak sauce for sure.

[dEVoRider]

i didnt say they sucked but they werent the greatest of all time, sure they do very well int he tour , but other races not sooo great. csc does well all around, from the tour to roubaix

[XXX_er]

The TDF is the biggy period ,nobody could tell you who the captain of CSC is unless they follow racing but everybody knows who the captain of the discovery team was

Lance's focus for all those years was the TDF period,the rest of the races really don't mean much if your goal is to win 6 TDF's

Lance would give all the race prize money he won in the TDF to his team cuz they helped him get all the other money/salary /endorsment ect ... no team ,no win race ,no fat yearly wage for lance,no record


when they talk about a racers career they say he did blah blah blah AND he won a stage of the TDF

[baloom]

i didnt say they sucked but they werent the greatest of all time, sure they do very well int he tour , but other races not sooo great. csc does well all around, from the tour to roubaix


Okay, here is the challenge. If Disco/previously USPS isn't the greatest, most productive team of all time, then who is and why?

Sound off all....

[pete@nsmb.com]

First of all, if you think that winning the Tour is the only race that counts, you've bought into the hype. It IS the most important race of the year in terms of exposure and that does mean a lot, but...

Worlds is more important to many riders because more riders have a chance to win and there is the issue of national pride.

Olympics - as above and only once every 4 years.

The Giro is a more exciting, more beautiful race than the Tour. Don't argue - it's true.

Paris-Roubaix and Liege-Bastogne-Liege are one day races vs a three week tour, but they're both so bad ass...many riders value one-day race wins in the classics above grand tour stage wins.

Best team ever? Trick question. Answer? Whichever team Eddy Merckx was riding for in whichever year he lined up. Because that cat won more races each year than Discovery Channel's (or CSC's) riders COMBINED. He raced and won everything, all year long. Lance's 7 tours were very impressive, but it's all he trained for - that's a big reason why he gets very little respect in europe: they see him as a one trick pony. Sure he was talented enough to win lots of other races, but he was driven by fame and money, not a pure love of bike racing.

Oh, and it's not at all rare to share your prize money with your team - all the smart captains do it. How can you ask a guy to bury himself with 50kms to go to haul back a break so you can win all the glory and podium girl threesomes if you don't share the pie - er, the cake?

[XXX_er]

well , so most people have bought into the hype ... mo money is mo money

fame and money doesnt that sound vaguely american ?

I agreee witrh most of what you say BUT was that the team or Eddy?

[pete@nsmb.com]

Obviously Eddy needed help to win but Eddy was Eddy all year long, Lance was Lance for one month a year...with the exception of 05 I think it was when he won the tour de georgia 'by accident'.

[sanrensho]

Obviously Eddy needed help to win but Eddy was Eddy all year long, Lance was Lance for one month a year...

You can't compare different cycling eras. Cycling has changed too much for there ever to be a cyclist as dominating as Merckx.

Merckx will always be considered the best, but that doesn't detract from Armstrong's accomplishments. If Merckx were riding today, there is no way he would be as dominant, for several reasons including a deeper international talent pool and the fact that most riders are now specialists concentrating on specific races. Not to mention that there would be intense pressure from team management for Merckx to target specific races instead of racing to win all the time.

The "only shows up for one month" argument about Armstrong is and always has been a load of crap. Except for some exceptions like Basso and Sastre (neither of whom were able to win the big show), the other top GC contenders also based their seasons around the TdF. That's just a reflection of how the sport is now.

You could just as easily say that Ullrich "only showed up for one month." (The one time Ullrich did the Giro/Tour double, he basically soft-pedaled except for the ITT.)

I could go on and on about this, but I'm not sure that cycling fans of any country really need to heed what the Euro fans think. North American fans and US fans specifically will always look up to the TdF because it's where Greg Lemond and later Lance made his mark. This is no different from the fact that Italian fans will always hold the Giro in high regard.

In my eyes, the most "beautiful" Grand Tour is the one with the highest level of competition, marked by the strongest riders. That has been the TdF for some time now. That isn't a knock on the Giro or Vuelta--in some years, one or the other has been the more exciting (unpredictable) race due to a lack of dominating riders.

[Ninja]

You can't compare different cycling eras. Cycling has changed too much for there ever to be a cyclist as dominating as Merckx.


I agree.

[sanrensho]

he was driven by fame and money, not a pure love of bike racing.


I don't get this at all. I don't claim to know the man, but I also don't claim to know his motivation for winning bike races.

And even if he only rode for "fame and money," would he be the only biker racer to have ever done that?

I have no idea how you measure "pure love of bike racing." Is 13 years in the pro peloton enough?

In 10 years, Armstrong may or may not be involved in cycling (but will almost certainly be involved in raising cancer awareness). By comparison, how involved is Miguel Indurain in cycling at this point?