Landis Leaves

[93legendti]

Now Floyd is leaving. I hope the money is worth it, every other rider to leave w/ grand tour aspirations, other than Tyler's limited success, have fallen flat--Vaughters, Livingston, Leipheimer and Heras. At USPS/Discovery he was gauranteed the best chance at a share of 2 grand tour winnings--which could be over $100,00 a year. Doesn't seem to be long term loyalty other than George and Chechu...

[Needs Help]

Doesn't seem to be long term loyalty other than George and Chechu...

Have they ever been offered bigger contracts elsewhere?

[Andreu]

Success is realtive and against 6 tdf wins all other successes will probably look a bit "weak" especially from a US perspective. Not every one can win grand tours or even have the capability to win these types of races.

I bet there are alot of riders that can´t wait for Lance to retire so they can experience some success!
A :beer:

[BigMac]

Doesn't seem to be long term loyalty other than George and Chechu...

Have they ever been offered bigger contracts elsewhere?

YES and YES, respectively...on more than one occasion from multiple teams.

Ride on! :banana: :banana: :banana:

[EdK]

Hmmmm all these great American riders leaving the great American team. Could be they have their own asperations. Could also be they are sick and tired of being micro managed by an overbearing egomaniac. Can't wait for the grand tour changing of the guard. 6 is enough.................... Flame Away!

[93legendti]

Success is wins or podium placings. Tyler has more crashes since leaving USPS than any of the vaunted support riders who left for greener pastures. 1 win for Levi, 7 wins for Tyler. All that since 2000 when Vaughters started the great migration.

[PhatMatt]

I'm not sure if I'm reading the tone of your posts correctly Mr. Legend93 but it seems you are taking the position that sticking around as a cog in someone else's very successful machine should be satisfaction enough for these riders. I must respectfully disagree. We are discussing professional athletes who above all else thirst for the spotlight. Without a stong ego I doubt these guys would ever be able to reach the heights they do having to train like fiends and eat like birds year round, year in and year out. When offered the chance to be the man why would you be at all surprised that many if not most take it?

Tyler has had an enormous amount of success after leaving Lance's shadow. Levi, too, has had a strong European career. If this was 5 years ago just having as many American riders in the European peloton would have been a monumental achievement. Methinks we are all not only a bit spoiled by Lance's 6 Tours but also our sense of perspective is a bit skewed. Tyler won an Olympic Gold medal, a big-daddy spring classic and finished 2nd in a grand tour. Take Lance out of the equation and we'd be praising Tyler as the second coming of Mr. LeMond, with Levi as his Andy Hampsten.

I say good luck to Floyd and anyone else with the talent and gumption to answer opportunity's knock and go for it on his own. In fact I often wonder just what the hell Hincapie is thinking every spring when his "good buddy" Lance is training somewhere on the Tour course instead of riding in support of him on the cobbles.

[Big Dan]

Floyd made some noise before riding for Postal, I think he has a chance of making something happen. Vaughters had bad luck, but put together some nice finishes for CA.

[93legendti]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2004/sep04/sep09news3

Tyler went down again...oops!