"Joseph Cipale" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
<snip>
> ummmmmmmmmm... Steve,
>
> Wasn't Motorola the pre-cursor to USPS?
>
> IIRC, Moto bowed out, leaving no US-sponsored team. Of course, Lance was signed with Cofidis and,
> well, we all know what happened next. Cancer, lack of (Cofidis) faith, Lance goes to USPS.
Subaru - Montgomery was the sponsor back in the days that Lance was on the team as an amateur. He
eventually left for Motorola because that were already based in Europe. He signed with them in '91
or '92. USPS was brought in as a sponsor in 1996 which was the last year for Motorola. Lance went to
Cofidis and took Livingston, Andreu and I think Bobby Julich. Lance signed with USPS after his
troubles with Cofidis and at that point it (finally) became a good match for Lance to come back to
the new look squad. Lance's market value had dropped while USPS was ramping up for a stronger
European campaign. The rest is fairly well known history.
In any case, it seems that a lot of people assumed that USPS came out of the ashes of Motorola
for several reasons. First of all, they were both American teams that used red white and blue for
the team kit. When USPS was brought in as the main sponsor, the team changed its colors to RWB
which at around the time Motorala went away. The second is that a lot of athletes were jumping
from team to team more or less together and they were essentially following Lance. Although both
USPS and Motorola were around as sponsors for 1996, they were not seen in any big races together
that I am aware of.
>
> Joe
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