Duh, what's up with USPS/Discovery? I mean the guy did win a stage in the Vuelta. Won the US ITT champs. They lost Eki, now I bet they wish they had Zabriskie to ride the TTT in the Tour.
Velonews:
Here's how Julich tells the story:
"The first thing was total disbelief was that Postal Service wouldn't sign David Zabriskie. I was blown away and I had to ask (Riis), are you sure that he's available? Absolutely, 100 percent, this is the guy you want because by far he is the top American talent under the age of 25. I saw him race, he's a great time trialist, great worker. He is one of the future stars of American cycling."
Duh, what's up with USPS/Discovery? I mean the guy did win a stage in the Vuelta. Won the US ITT champs. They lost Eki, now I bet they wish they had Zabriskie to ride the TTT in the Tour.
Velonews:
Here's how Julich tells the story:
"The first thing was total disbelief was that Postal Service wouldn't sign David Zabriskie. I was blown away and I had to ask (Riis), are you sure that he's available? Absolutely, 100 percent, this is the guy you want because by far he is the top American talent under the age of 25. I saw him race, he's a great time trialist, great worker. He is one of the future stars of American cycling."
No doubt this guy has a big future. It's hard to say why they disagreed on a contract. I'd like to know what the negotiations were: salary range, etc. In fact, I'd like to see a few pro contracts and read them, noting exactly what price and terms they put in there.
Note that he won't be a Giro GC contender this year. He's far back on GC as of today, about 45 minutes. He did show some thunder today though. Clearly, that 160 km breakaway win in the Vuelta last year was no fluke.
Duh, what's up with USPS/Discovery? I mean the guy did win a stage in the Vuelta. Won the US ITT champs. They lost Eki, now I bet they wish they had Zabriskie to ride the TTT in the Tour.
Velonews:
Here's how Julich tells the story:
"The first thing was total disbelief was that Postal Service wouldn't sign David Zabriskie. I was blown away and I had to ask (Riis), are you sure that he's available? Absolutely, 100 percent, this is the guy you want because by far he is the top American talent under the age of 25. I saw him race, he's a great time trialist, great worker. He is one of the future stars of American cycling."
You have to understand DC's philosophy. DC is generally not focused on stage wins at Grand Tours (esp at the Tour and even at the Giro). It is hoping to podium and/or win the overall GC. The other part of DC is that there is a Classics group. That is it. They do not want people who can ITT; they need people who can TTT only if that helps them in the Tour (very difficult to get on Tour team; Zabriskie wasn't even close due to his limited climbing capabilities, among many other problems for his selection) and the person is otherwise able to help in othe parts of the race. Zabriskie was on the Vuelta team, and not part of the Tour team. People in that position are on Team B or less on DC. Anybody who isn't on the Tour team and who isn't a Classics star is vulnerable on DC.
It has only been recently that they really had a classics team. Before it was George and Eki doing the classics with Lance doing a couple now and then. They hired three classics specialists this year. Before they only hired for the Tour and the classics were on the side.
Postal/Discovery has been a one race team. The success and failure of their program has been the Tour. With the pro Tour and Armstrong's retirement they have to try to diversify. Popovych and Savoldelli weren't hired to just support Lance but to have ambitions on thier own. Hoste, Hammond and Devolder were hired just for their classics ability and not to support Lance in the Tour. My point is that Postal put all there eggs in one basket and any results at the Vuelta or in classics were just a bonus.
Postal/Discovery has been a one race team. The success and failure of their program has been the Tour. With the pro Tour and Armstrong's retirement they have to try to diversify. Popovych and Savoldelli weren't hired to just support Lance but to have ambitions on thier own. Hoste, Hammond and Devolder were hired just for their classics ability and not to support Lance in the Tour. My point is that Postal put all there eggs in one basket and any results at the Vuelta or in classics were just a bonus.
Discovery seems to be doing very well at the moment: overall win in the Tour of Georgia, stage win today in the Giro, GC lead today in the Tour of Catalunya, and these were all not Lance. He's still waiting it out for the Tour.
think the point is, what's the point in hiring strongmen like Hammond and Hoste if they can't even finish the job and win the big classics? My one and only example is RVV (because i can't be arsed to search the whole damn internet finding various quotes and look clever).
They didn't necessarily want Hammond and Hoste to win. They wanted them to support their Classics leader Hincapie. Hammond and Hoste winning were "backup" possibilities in case Hincapie faltered. 😉
Hincapie though isn't at the level of the elite one day riders. He is there leader but when Boonen and him were together at the end of Paris-Roubauix it would have taken a miracle to win and he didn't enter a lot of the other classics since he doesn't do that great on the hilly courses.
