Disco getting desperate

Bro Deal said:

According to cyclingnews they are looking for a Chinese sponsor. Their attempts to get a U.S. one or a European one must not be going well.

Looks like Home Depot turned them down. I guess doping and operating power tools does not go hand in hand.

That Chinese EPO is hot (undetectable) [censored] too.

More likely they are putting out the chinese 'option' to the media to signal to potential partners in the US that they have a 'market'. Its definately a buyers sponsorship market right now and they are likely being pushed around back home. There is no way they will do a deal in China.

Chinese cycle racing is just not satisfying to watch. Two hours later I want to watch the race again.

Bro Deal said:

According to cyclingnews they are looking for a Chinese sponsor. Their attempts to get a U.S. one or a European one must not be going well.

Looks like Home Depot turned them down. I guess doping and operating power tools does not go hand in hand.

Desperate? Or extremely smart? Talk about reaching into an untapped resource / market. China has over a billion people alone... Now granted, a lot are extremely poor, but the economy is booming and growing so fast and there is a decent amount of wealthy people

Get a chinese sponsor. Sell your apparel to billions of people. Trek / Bontrager make a gold mine when chinese citizens want to follow 'their' team. It's a biz-nas mannnn.

Existence - man, what's that dopers gallery at the end of your posts? Its freakin me out.

A couple of Chinese auto companies are about to enter the US and Euro markets, so it would make sense that they would be looking to invest in such marketing opportunities. As mentioned by someone else it's an untapped market. Of course some people here spend their time consumed by hate for all things LA/Discovery and can't see reality.

jhuskey said:

Chinese cycle racing is just not satisfying to watch. Two hours later I want to watch the race again.

Nooooo........... I just laughed so hard I have coffee all over my monitor.

I can see it all now!

I really can see it now

Johan Buyneel: "If you live in a glasshouse you shouldn't throw to much stones"
cyclingheroes.infoid662.htmlOpen ↗

Sour grapes

I liked this:

Quoted post said:

"Ok, as you are provoking me anyway," Bruyneel continued: "Speaking about ethic and T-Mobile. If the management has so much critisism, why does Rolf Aldag sign doctors from whom he knew they had a doping past as he restructured the internal organisation? What ethic are we talking about?"

Coming from the man who signed Basso, Contador and Davis.

'The knife cuts deep.'

cyclingheroes said:

Johan Buyneel: "If you live in a glasshouse you shouldn't throw to much stones"
cyclingheroes.infoid662.htmlOpen ↗

Well it gets worse as Levi smashed into the pavement going for the stage win today..... he doesn't look good..... what was he thinking in the rain taking a roundabout like that on the last stage ?

whiteboytrash said:

Well it gets worse as Levi smashed into the pavement going for the stage win today..... he doesn't look good..... what was he thinking in the rain taking a roundabout like that on the last stage ?

And fat ass director [censored] himself in the rain.

Ullefan said:

Sour grapes

I liked this:

Coming from the man who signed Basso, Contador and Davis.

'The knife cuts deep.'

Bruyneel way is to lock it up.... keep it quite.... don't talk about it.... because how the fark am I meant to dope my riders if we're all paranoid about doping... and I'll hire Basso if I want because I don't care if he was doping because he was going to be doping with me anyway..... that is shameful from Bruyneel....

cyclingheroes said:

Johan Buyneel: "If you live in a glasshouse you shouldn't throw to much stones"
cyclingheroes.infoid662.htmlOpen ↗

Those that live in glass houses shouldn't get stoned.

Ullefan said:

Sour grapes

I liked this:

Coming from the man who signed Basso, Contador and Davis.

'The knife cuts deep.'

TM has shown it is the most unethical team in recent history. It has done nothing but talked about cleaning up the sport. Except the hanging of JU. We discover JU is a fraud, Riis is a fraud, and Zabel is a fraud. [ Maybe on Zabel]
The entire team has dirt on it's hands. Was there anyone of any importance on TM that is clean? But what did we expect????? You had to be on dope to wear those team jerseys.

wolfix said:

TM has shown it is the most unethical team in recent history. It has done nothing but talked about cleaning up the sport. Except the hanging of JU. We discover JU is a fraud, Riis is a fraud, and Zabel is a fraud. [ Maybe on Zabel]
The entire team has dirt on it's hands. Was there anyone of any importance on TM that is clean? But what did we expect????? You had to be on dope to wear those team jerseys.

I am very interested in this twist of logic that allows you to see admissions of doping as making "TM ... the most unethical team in recent history." Surely, by your own arguments in other posts, you agree that most other riders are doping? So what about Riis, Zabel, etc. fessing up makes TM so much more unethical than say Liberty/Astana, CSC, Discovery, Quickstep, who continue to keep to the omerta?

Because we have seen TM employ doctors who they knew were behind JU and company. We now know TM was dirty top to bottom with team endorsed doping. It's a fact. It's no longer just allegations. The other teams you mention simply have not been caught. When they are, and we will see more names follow then the same can be said about them.

Throughout this entire mess of the past year, we have yet to see Bruyneel and company attached to any doping. Assumptions and allegations are great for the press and forums, but without proof that is all they are.

I see nothing wrong with hiring Basso after he was given a clean bill of health by his country's cycling organization. . Of course we see that it was not a true one. It was a high risk move made by Bruyneel, but one that had to be made. But until we have proof that other teams have had team organized doping, TM was definetly the dirtiest team in cycling.
But at some point cycling is going to have to move on. If everyone that is alleged to have doped, or rides for a doped team cannot race, then we will see the sport's popularity really drop.

As for Discovery looking to China, it may be a wise move. Bruyneel has been lucky so far to have an American sponsor. As a American and a cycling fan, I personally hate seeing American sponsorship money over there. I would prefer the money from sponsors staying here to help the junior program and others,. I have been part of race promotions and I have seen how hard it is to get some money to put on a race. As a person who studied advertising in University, I understand Discovery's/US Postal's reasons for trying to penetrate the European market. Unless that is the reason, I would prefer the money to stay here. Cycling in the US is starting to get too expensive for the average person to get into . The high gas proces we see now will really have an effect on the sport if they stay high.

I have problems with the cycling organizations[American] wanting their riders to get good enough to ride in Europe. I believe if a rider gets to the point of a Lemond/Armstrong, then they need to do Europe on their own. [ala Lemond] Keep the money here and have more local racing.....

Actually I think the most interesting part of the interview is about the weak financial structure of cycling. I will publish an interview with Harm Jansen and Sean Tucker (Both Toyota-United) about that in the coming week.