So....Discovery is iets van die verlede....

[Spinnekop]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2007/aug07/aug10news3

 

 

[pastapouch]

Al die doping help nie die saak as 'n sponsor ontrtrek en nuwes moet gesoek word nie.

[AndreZA]

Wonder if Contador will get a ride for next year? Wonder if we will see Treks in the tour again.

 

 

[amdretard]

They a ProtTour team right ! remeber Barloworld cant get a Protour license until 2009 due to 4 year contract being offered. Unless a team is kicked out or Dissloved .............

 

 

[Christie]

Champagne anyone? 

[fandacious]

Isn't LA part owner of team discovery?

[Joss]

Disco announced in the beginning of the year that they will discontinue at the end of the season.

[linnega]

Discovery announced in February that they would not continue but that did not mean the end of the team.  You will (should) recall that the previous sponsor of this team was USPS.  However, Tailwind Sports have decided to wind up operations.  That means there will be a ProTour license available this year which was not the case until today.  Any bets on Team Cannondale / Barloworld registering in the USA for the 2008 season

 

Good move by Tailwind (and Armstrong for that matter - maybe he's not as dumb as he looks).  The media machine can only hide so much these days and given the smoke around the team, it was only a matter of time before something indisputable came to light.

 

[Christie]

So who are the contenders for the license? Barloworld, Tinkoff, who else, perhaps Slipstream-Chipolte?

[Man with no name]

 

Champagne anyone? 

 

 

[widget]

None to soon in my opinion.!

 

Been unable to find a sponsor is just a by - product of the teams "suspicious" history, and Contador been linked (rightly or wrongly) to "Puerto" would have chased any possible future sponsor into the hills.

 

Winning races is not a garurantee of sponsorship, the team was managed poorly, they made unpopular decisions (Basso), they were unpopular with other leading teams (they were about to be voted out of the Pro tour team comittee) , and they were arrogant in their management style believing they could bulldoze "their way" and "their opinions" onto other teams and race organisors, and they were even disliked by many of the riders (Voigt been very vocal about some of their decisions) 

 

In my opinion they also paid the media "to talk the team up" - certainly the two Ps never found fault with any of the teams poor decisions (even the Basso signing) which was odd.

 

With a license becoming available, Barloworld must stand a chance, but to me they are just another European team, - I would hazard, if they stay in the sport, the only thing South African in two or three years will be the history.   

widget2007-08-11 02:33:19