Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team

From Open Encyclopedia

Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team is a US-based professional road bicycle racing team. It is the continuation of the 2004 US Postal Service Pro Cycling Team. Lance Armstrong, seven time Tour de France winner, was its leader (albeit only during the Tour) until July 2005. Since 2005, the team is one of the 20 teams that compete in the new UCI ProTour.

On June 15 2004, the Discovery Channel signed a deal to become sponsor of the team for the seasons of 2004 until 2008. As part of the sponsorship deal, Armstrong will provide on-air appearances for the Discovery Networks TV Channels, including but not limited to, The Discovery Channel, TLC, and Fit TV.

The deal is not expected to affect OLN's rights to air major cycling events such as the Tour de France, despite the fact that the two channels are competitors.

The team is directed by the Belgian Johan Bruyneel, who also managed U.S. Postal. The chief mechanic is Julien DeVries. The team is co-owned by Tailwind Sports Corp. of San Francisco and Capital Sports & Entertainment of Austin, TX.

In its maiden year, the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team has won two of the three Grand Tours of cycling: The Tour de France (Lance Armstrong) and the Giro d'Italia (Paolo Savoldelli).

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2006 team list

No data in the '2005 team' coloumn indicates the rider also rode for Discovery Channel in the 2005 season.

Name	Born	Nationality	2005 team
José Azevedo	1973	name={{{name\|}}}}}
Michael Barry	1975	name={{{name\|}}}}}
Manuel Beltran	1971	name={{{name\|}}}}}
Fumiyuki Beppu	1983	name={{{name\|}}}}}
Volodymyr Bileka	1979	name={{{name\|}}}}}
Janez Brajkovič	1983	name={{{name\|}}}}}
Tom Danielson	1978	name={{{name\|}}}}}
Stijn Devolder	1979	name={{{name\|}}}}}
Viatcheslav Ekimov	1966	name={{{name\|}}}}}
Vladimir Gusev	1982	name={{{name\|}}}}}	Team CSC
Roger Hammond	1974	name={{{name\|}}}}}
George Hincapie	1973	name={{{name\|}}}}}
Leif Hoste	1977	name={{{name\|}}}}}
Benoît Joachim	1976	name={{{name\|}}}}}
Trent Lowe	1984	name={{{name\|}}}}}	Jittery Joe's
Egoi Martínez de Esteban	1978	name={{{name\|}}}}}	Euskaltel-Euskadi
Jason McCartney	1973	name={{{name\|}}}}}
Guennady Mikhaylov	1974	name={{{name\|}}}}}
Benjamín Noval	1979	name={{{name\|}}}}}
Pavel Padrnos	1996	name={{{name\|}}}}}
Yaroslav Popovych	1980	name={{{name\|}}}}}
Hayden Roulston	1981	name={{{name\|}}}}}
José Luis Rubiera	1973	name={{{name\|}}}}}
Paolo Savoldelli	1973	name={{{name\|}}}}}
Jurgen van den Broeck	1983	name={{{name\|}}}}}
Jurgen Van Goolen	1980	name={{{name\|}}}}}	Quick·Step
Max van Heeswijk	1973	name={{{name\|}}}}}
Matthew White	1974	name={{{name\|}}}}}	Cofidis