New Discovery announcements

[alembical]

From: http://www.velonews.com/race/int/articles/6730.0.html

Axel Merckx and Paris-Roubaix podium finisher Roger Hammond are set to join Discovery Channel for 2005. According to a report in the Het Niewsblad newspaper, Hammond has signed a two-year contract to join the American team while Merckx will rejoin with Lance Armstrong, who rode together in the mid-1990s at Motorola.

Hammond, a British rider on Mr. Bookmaker.com, finished third in this year's Paris-Roubaix. Merckx, the son of cycling legend Eddy Merckx, enjoyed a fine Tour de France, going on the attack on several occasions and finishing 21st overall.

Earlier this week, Discovery Channel announced that promising grand tour contender Yaroslav Popovych was joining the team with a three-year contract.

Alembical

[BikerGrl]

The Paceline also reports in addition to Axel, LEIF HOSTE ??? Who. anyway, lots of $$$$ Discovery seems to be shelling out.
Thanks. Hadn't heard about Hammond.

[Dr. Doofus]

Dear Serottans:


If Big George hasn't lost his strength for the short attacks by training for the mountains, might we see the "H-Bombs" (Hincapie, Hoste, Hammond, Van Heeswijk(?) ) procure a classics win?



Your Dutch Spelling Confused Servant,


Dr. D. Doofus, Esq.

[Roy E. Munson]

Leif Hoste - rode in the lead group at Paris-Roubaix until some arsehole spectator let a flag drop on the course, it wrapped around his wheel or rear deraileur and he was dropped from the group. He followed that up with a second place at Flanders. That's not bad, in the real races too, not the snoozer tours. :D :banana:

[BikerGrl]

Excellent, thanks! I guess that's one guy I missed for some reason.

[tch]

who are they going to let go, who is leaving? Postal (now Discovery) already had the strongest team in the TdF....

[Blastinbob]

found this on another forum (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=60189)

[Roy E. Munson]

I heard CSC for Landis as well. I could be wrong, because I heard Hincapie was headed there too possibly.

[shinomaster]

It would be super nice to see George race on a strong classics team..
I wonder how high he could place in stage races if he rode for himself?

[Roy E. Munson]

I agree, he would be a great support rider for a strong classics racer who knows how to win.
Racing for himself in a tour, I bet he could place possibly two places higher than he did this year.

[coylifut]

Wow, discovery has a bona fide cyclocross racer. Hammond is a former world junior cx champion. As I recall (which means I won't go look it up), Hammond finished somewhere near 10th in the CX worlds in 2004. The prior year, Hammond mentioned that not doing his normal cross program hurt his road season and has vowed to be more active in the discipline. Generally, these guys are under contract through the end of the year. So, maybe we'll see Hammond in the New Discovery kit during the race-packed week between xmas and new years. I may be the only one who cares though.

[Climb01742]

for next year's pro tour, wouldn't they need more riders to compete in the required races? could they resemble mapei of a few years ago, with essentially multiple squads? i'd hate to see either floyd or george go. as would lance, i'd guess.

[jerk]

it appears to the jerk that postal is gearing up to provide support for armstrong in some races other than the tour de france. do not be surprised if you see all those chumps busting their hump for lance in flanders, l-b-l, amstel gold, and the rest of the world cup. the fact of the matter is with the right team lance armstrong can win any race he wants to. it would not surprise the jerk if armstrong threatened with legal stuff in italy, forgoes the grand tours and attempts to win the world cup....a proven ability to win one day races is all that seperates him from merckx. he made history by winning 6 tours...let's face it he's better than everyone else in almost every condition save a field sprint....if he wanted to win paris roubaix there is not a rider in the world a lance armstrong in peak condition couldn't ride right off his wheel.

(by the way the jerk doesn't even really like the guy)

jerk

[shinomaster]

It would be nice to see Lance tear it up in the spring. He seems to keep making mistakes in the Calssics though...Will he ever get it right?

[coylifut]

It's apparent to everyone, Lance could have second, albeit shorter carrer as a classics rider. He'd only need to bag a couple of em. I remember when he tried to make a run at Amstel for a few years, the cauberg wasn't long enough for him to get rid of the anarobic animals. However, they could probalby install some new software on his hard drive and reprogram him to pull it off. I used to try to save lost women, now I'm an Ulrich fan which fully takes care of that need.

[Johny]

it appears to the jerk that postal is gearing up to provide support for armstrong in some races other than the tour de france. ... armstrong threatened with legal stuff in italy, forgoes the grand tours...


Again, Lance is tricking us so that other opponents, such as Jan, may take a long winter and spring vacation.
I have no doubt that he will focus on winning his 7th Tour.