"Disco" is Dead

I'm a little late in responding to the news, but the greatest cycling team of the last ten years, Discovery Channel (formerly US Postal Service), who saw Lance Armstrong to a record seven Tour de France wins, has decided to call it quits. Sponsorship was set to change after this season anyway since the Discovery Channel had only signed on for three years as title sponsor, but the current climate of cycling proved to not be conducive for the management team to continue on.

I had posted after the Tour that it's really terrible that a team that wins the Tour, puts two riders on the final podium, wins the young rider and team competitions and gets a stage win would have more trouble finding a sponsor after the Tour than before it, but the severity of the fallout from failed drug tests and other allegations against some notable riders was huge.

This hits a little close to home for me because I also sell Trek bikes. Now Trek is left without a team in the top tier of professional road cycling. Granted, there is time for them to set something up with another team to carry sponsorship over to next year, but I'm not sure that I see a likely candidate in the pro peleton.

It also hits home because I've been a fan and close follower of the sport for over 20 years and during that time my favorite teams have been 7-11, Motorola, US Postal and Discovery; teams that all share DNA, a lot of riders and even some support staff and management. I don't see a likely team to absorb enough of the current Disco riders to make me feel like the torch has been passed. Where will favorites like George Hincapie, Levi Leipheimer and Tour champ Alberto Contador end up (Georgie's already rumored to have been signed by T-Mobile)? Will team Slipstream become the new, most prominent US based team? Will Lance ever be affiliated with a team again as closely as he has been with this one even since retirement?

Time will tell, but for now, the bell tolls for the most successful team in the history of US cycling.