Discovery disbands
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Make up your mind Timmy.Tim Lamkin said:
You cannot be bipolar and expect to get away with it here.
This appeared in mainstream press in Britain:
On a slightly different scale, of course, but the cycling team's eight Tour de France victories in nine years - the first half-dozen of them under their previous sponsor, the US Postal Service, and the most recent barely a fortnight ago - certainly resembles United's dominance over the past decade and a half.
The team are giving up because they cannot find anyone to replace their current sponsors, whose three-year deal ends this season. At the moment, thanks to bike racing's recent travails, no one is willing to step forward with the £22.5m it would cost to fund the squad's programme for the next three years.
The team is owned by Tailwind Sports, an organisation in which Lance Armstrong is a shareholder. Armstrong, who won seven of those eight Tours, has denied that the failure to obtain new sponsorship was the prime reason for quitting. "We're just deciding that this is a good time to step aside," he said.
But you have to wonder if their own record does not have something to do with it. Several of the team's most prominent former riders, including Roberto Heras, Tyler Hamilton and Floyd Landis, have failed dope tests, while Ivan Basso was given a two-year ban shortly after signing up this year, for admitting offences committed earlier. And now Alberto Contador, who wore the maillot jaune in Paris two Sundays ago, is the subject of efforts to link him with the Operación Puerto investigation in Spain.
At their best the team formed a mighty machine, and to follow their nine riders during the team trial in the 2003 Tour was to witness an exposition of supreme sporting discipline. But by stationing security guards around their riders, by surrounding their team bus with guard rails and by generally living life behind mirrored glass, they also removed some of the event's precious humanity. For that, they will not be missed.
On a slightly different scale, of course, but the cycling team's eight Tour de France victories in nine years - the first half-dozen of them under their previous sponsor, the US Postal Service, and the most recent barely a fortnight ago - certainly resembles United's dominance over the past decade and a half.
The team are giving up because they cannot find anyone to replace their current sponsors, whose three-year deal ends this season. At the moment, thanks to bike racing's recent travails, no one is willing to step forward with the £22.5m it would cost to fund the squad's programme for the next three years.
The team is owned by Tailwind Sports, an organisation in which Lance Armstrong is a shareholder. Armstrong, who won seven of those eight Tours, has denied that the failure to obtain new sponsorship was the prime reason for quitting. "We're just deciding that this is a good time to step aside," he said.
But you have to wonder if their own record does not have something to do with it. Several of the team's most prominent former riders, including Roberto Heras, Tyler Hamilton and Floyd Landis, have failed dope tests, while Ivan Basso was given a two-year ban shortly after signing up this year, for admitting offences committed earlier. And now Alberto Contador, who wore the maillot jaune in Paris two Sundays ago, is the subject of efforts to link him with the Operación Puerto investigation in Spain.
At their best the team formed a mighty machine, and to follow their nine riders during the team trial in the 2003 Tour was to witness an exposition of supreme sporting discipline. But by stationing security guards around their riders, by surrounding their team bus with guard rails and by generally living life behind mirrored glass, they also removed some of the event's precious humanity. For that, they will not be missed.
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