Discovery in disarray.... ?

MJtje said:

Yeah devolder is a weird rider, but he has the potential to be there with boonen. Look at kuurne-brussel-kuurne last year....the only reason why hincapie won was because of the constant attacks of devolder that exhausted boonen in the end........

The moment devolder rides conservatively in a race, he'll do big things.......still waiting for that moment..............

Correction: The moment Devolder jumps ship to Davitamon, he'll do big things 😄

wolfix said:

There is no doubt Discovery put all it's eggs in one basket..... But the Discovery Channel who paid the way wanted nothing but a TDF win. They had riders who may have had a few victories if it wasn't for riding solely for Lance. Hincapie is a rider who put personal aspirations aside. Discovery went with the TDF formula that the teams of old had.... One team leader, everyone for that team leader.
And now the price must be paid.
This year I believe is a transition year. Bruyneel gets to see who steps up and wants the team leader role. I am willing to bet that the Giro for Salvo and PR for Hincapie is a more realistic goal then the TDF is for Discovery. . I imagine at the end of this year Discovery will sort it's players out and have a more solid definition of who they are. Bruyneel is a smart man. And off hand, I can see Landis at Discovery next year if he continues at this pace. Landis's earning power is much higher at Discovery then it is anywhere else. I just cannot see Discovery wanting to be a Classics team with the Discovery Channel as the sponsor. They need an American at the front of the TDF to reach their market base.

I think I qualified my statements by saying that in concentrating solely on the TDF - this year was bound to be difficult for DC/USPS.
However I added the point that Armstrong retired 8 months ago - to be still undecided at this point does hint at perhaps more deeprooted problems.

But I think that your point about PR and the Giro are very good..
I think DC will try to defend the Giro - and this strategy would be wise because Savoldelli represents DC's best chance of a GT win this season.
I don't believe that DC will try to defend the TDF.

Regarding Landis going back to DC - it could be a distinct possibility.

I reckon Discovery should put the same effort into winning the Giro that they did in winning the tour de France in the past 7 years. Take a full strength team with all the climbing domestiques they can and see what happens. Thats their best chance of a major win this season.

I hope Hincapie does do all the classics, as he will be a contender where as at the tour its unlikely he'll podium.

Eldrack said:

I reckon Discovery should put the same effort into winning the Giro that they did in winning the tour de France in the past 7 years. Take a full strength team with all the climbing domestiques they can and see what happens. Thats their best chance of a major win this season.

I hope Hincapie does do all the classics, as he will be a contender where as at the tour its unlikely he'll podium.

Speaking of disarray...anyone see Tom Boonen's weirdo performance in Dwars door Vlandered today.
Weird...attacked at wierd times, couldnt stay away, Hammond dropped him at one point.
Whats up with Tom...is the rainbow curse beginning to descend.

Dimos said:

What a thread!
The pro-Discos see no disarray the con-Discos see plenty...

Let's leave the season unfold first, shall we?

Simple but sweet.

Eden said:

I for one have been enjoying the early season so far and I think that the big tours this year will be better than ever since there could be some serious competition happening.

There you go.😉

Great job on the new Avatar.

[quote="Eden"]I have to agree here - I've been watching this thread, thinking to myself that the whole argument is a little silly.

this is just about the only reasonable point that has been made in this thread for a while.

lwedge said:

Simple but sweet.

There you go.😉

Great job on the new Avatar.

Those would be my team colors - figured I ought to update the avatar with the new look - well not exactly new, I've been on the team a while, but now that racing season has started and I've got my kit I really feel like I'm part of it.

To keep the post a little on thread topic: Vive Le Tour who cares what team the winner is on. I just want to see a great contest!!!!

Eldrack said:

I would say that they had pretty similar seasons, in terms of results, myself.

Thanks for supporting my position that of course Vino did not have a better season that Hincapie. 😄

musette said:

Thanks for supporting my position that of course Vino did not have a better season that Hincapie. 😄

Interesting world you live in, Musette, where KBK is a race equal to LBL....

musette said:

Thanks for supporting my position that of course Vino did not have a better season that Hincapie. 😄

Vino and Hincapie both had a great season, BUT... yes Vino won LBL and that's not only the oldest pro race on the planet, it' s a real big thing if you can win that race.

If you split the season into two parts, spring season/classics and then stage races.

Vino won the LBL, Hincapie won KBK, GP Poulay (protour) and came second at Roubaix (and 7th at Flanders). Vino gets the win in the classic but Hincapie shows consistency throughout the spring races, still wins two races.

In the stage races Vino gets stage + 5th overall Dauphiné Libéré, 2 stages + 5th overall Tour de France. Hincapie gets two stages at the Dauphine, one stage at the TDF (two if you count the team time trial). Vino beat Hincapie in both the ITTs at the tour. However Hincapie at the tour can't be judged properly as he was riding completely for Armstrong, whereas Vino certainly wasn't riding for Ullrich.

I retract any previous judgement on who had the bettter season, I'm not sure if I care and I think its quite hard to tell. All i'll say is that they are both great riders who, unlike a lot of riders these days, perform in both the Stage races GTs and the one day races.

DC put 5 riders in the top 15 of la etapa reina in today's VCL.

I think "unfocused" may be a better descriptor than "disarray". I'd like to see them ride the Giro to win with PS, ride the Tour for GC to give Popo some confidence for next year, and ride the Vuelta for stage wins.

Just fueling the fire.

micron said:

Interesting world you live in, Musette, where KBK is a race equal to LBL....

We can't expect the intellectual giant that is musette to understand the significance of LBL. On a couple of occasions she stated last year that DSC riders won two stages of LBL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I kid you not.

patch70 said:

We can't expect the intellectual giant that is musette to understand the significance of LBL. On a couple of occasions she stated last year that DSC riders won two stages of LBL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I kid you not.

if only you had the quote 🙁

Dead Star said:

if only you had the quote 🙁

I certainly don't make it a habit of storing stupid quotes from musette. My computer only has 80Gb of hard drive.

The search engine for cyclingforums is not that good so it would take too damn long to find it.

patch70 said:

We can't expect the intellectual giant that is musette to understand the significance of LBL. On a couple of occasions she stated last year that DSC riders won two stages of LBL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I kid you not.

That perception on the part of a poster would make their pain, when I destroy their comments contrary to mine, all the more stinging, wouldn't it? :p

musette said:

That perception on the part of a poster would make their pain, when I destroy their comments contrary to mine, all the more stinging, wouldn't it? :p

You're so hot when you're angry....

By the way, Vino changed his mind about riding LBL (from the Liberty Seguros website):

Your plans have changed and you will now ride in the Liège-Bastogne-Liege instead of the Tour of Georgia. Which will be your aim there?

"Liège is a very nice race and I would like to be good so as to try to win with a team mate. I won it last year and to think of repeating it is very difficult, but of course, it would be something special."

Dead Star said:

if only you had the quote 🙁

Ahhh! 😄

GIYF: http://www.google.com/search?num=50&hs=EFM&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&c2coff=1&client=opera&rls=en&q=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.cyclingforums.com%2F+musette+Liege+Baston+Liege&btnG=Search

Two Stages, Liege Baston Liege ... http://www.cyclingforums.com/showthread.php?referrerid=96530&t=262425

patch70 said:

We can't expect the intellectual giant that is musette to understand the significance of LBL. On a couple of occasions she stated last year that DSC riders won two stages of LBL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I kid you not.

I really do hate to get in between you children and your silly squabbles when there is actualy cycling news to discuss, I also hate to defend Musette at all because that is clearly just not done. But I did look back at Musett's post about 2 stages at LBL. Indeed she did write that. Was it a typo, mistake, or lack of knowledge.... not sure. But what is clear is that it took two full days and 27 posts for Patch to catch what she had said. During that time, Patch had three other posts on the thread and Lim had seven. WBT, who started the thread, didn't jump in at all. What's the message here? People in glass houses should not throw stones? perhaps. Before you go back nine months to slam someone, make sure you were awake and not looking like a moron at the same time. Now, I sure I am not the only one who gets very little sleep in July but......there is nothing more to say here.... move along.