Discovery in disarray.... ?
- Thread starter whiteboytrash
- Start date
Jose Azevedo, one of the mountain specialists for the Discovery Team, has given up the final year of his contract so that he can race exclusively in Portugal, his home country. Azevedo was Lance Armstrong's main mountain lieutenant in 2004 and 2005. He was fifth in the 2004 Tour. Azevedo's move was to stay closer to his family.
www.statesman.com
www.statesman.com
I know but its sounds like he was pushed... Portugal hardly has a thriving pro scene !cyclingheroes said:
Doesn´t give you potential to earn back a lot of euros, but sure we have many races, 4 of them are in procycling manager pc-game.whiteboytrash said:
We have 2 top teams La-liberty ( had an agreement with liberty seguros) and Maia milaneza wich you can remember a few years ago did well in tour of spain( i think a rider in top 10 Claus Moller and a stage win fabian Jeker) then some positive controls have stop their strive to be in pro tour ( in those years wasn´t this name, but their main goal was to ride the 3 main compertitions by stages: Giro, tour, Vuelta). When azevedo went to ONCE he was part of this team and when ONCE stop their project we went back, but the dollars of US Postal spoken loudly than his heart.
Now, SL Benfica ( do you know the football team?) are restrating a project wich they expect to be in tour de france in 4 years
, It´s a benfica thing they allways expect great things but we shoul never care for what they believe in, but one thing i give you: they should get more money from sponsors than the 2 teams i mentioned earlier, because in portugal the 3 great teams of football ( benfica, sporting and PORTO) get many attention from the media. It was spoken that maybee porto enters the competition too, taking over an existing team called Madeinox, but just a rumor. If true, i think great interest/sponsors will enter with them.Anyway, benfica already signed some of the new talent in portugal. Azevedo is linked to benfica by a portuguese web site. 3 season contract wich lead to azevedo left out of Disco.
http://diariodigital.sapo.pt/news.asp?section_id=129&id_news=240685
Maybee you get to see them in Volta ao Algarve, Disco allway ride this competition, and some competitions in spain ( Vuelta Murcia, rota do sol, etc.). After all, their project is foreign based.
edit:
http://www.abola.pt/nnh/index.asp?op=ver¬icia=107241&d=1&tema=17
Another link to this news.
It´s oficial
http://www.slbenfica.pt/Info/Outras%20Noticias/outrasnoticias_cicjoseazevedochefe_250806_38150.asp
cyclingnews has a start list posted, and of course so does the official site, lavuelta.com :acpinto said:
BARRY Michael
BELTRAN MARTINEZ Manuel
BRAJKOVIC Janez
DANIELSON Thomas
DEVOLDER Stijn
GUSEV Vladimir
JOACHIM Benoît
MARTINEZ DE ESTEBAN Egoi
VAN GOOLEN Jurgen
cyclingheroes said:
That move hurts DC.
Very much so.
Azevedo is a classy cyclist - and I am amazed that DC haven't tried to retain him.
This latest error is worse than letting Hoste leave.
DC are in total disarray.
Think they are making a team to be on top not next year but in the future, let´s say 2/3 years. So they aren´t worried that a 32 years rider leave the team.
Although, levi isn´t that young and that puts my theory down.
Bottom line´, GH is not going to have a team to support him in next year tour, so not a GC contender .
Although, levi isn´t that young and that puts my theory down.
Bottom line´, GH is not going to have a team to support him in next year tour
, so not a GC contender .
JRMDC said:
Error was letting him walk away, I think.
media reports say that he wants to go home to Portugal.
Couldn't DC have tried to persuade him to stay? Maybe offer him more money?
Ace is a very good rider, i think. Too good to be allowed to leave without trying to make him stay.
My contacts told me that he wants to go back to Portugal because his mother is very ill. He wants to stay close to his family.limerickman said:
Looks like Discovery tried to get Kessler but yet again another example of a rider not wanting to ride with them..... good move from Kessler to stay away.......
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Klöden's teammate, Matthias Kessler, is also looking forward to working with an old friend in coming years. "Alexander Vinokourov is my friend," he commented his team change to Astana. "He took a lot of trouble with me, he recruited me, and asked if I would like to come with him. It was simply the right step, after having ridden with him for six years with Telekom." He noted that after his Tour de France stage win, he had "several offers, including one from Discovery."
The next few years of his career are important, the 27 year-old Kessler said. "The next four years are decisive for me personally. Between the ages of 27 and 31 you have the best chances in cycling."
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Klöden's teammate, Matthias Kessler, is also looking forward to working with an old friend in coming years. "Alexander Vinokourov is my friend," he commented his team change to Astana. "He took a lot of trouble with me, he recruited me, and asked if I would like to come with him. It was simply the right step, after having ridden with him for six years with Telekom." He noted that after his Tour de France stage win, he had "several offers, including one from Discovery."
The next few years of his career are important, the 27 year-old Kessler said. "The next four years are decisive for me personally. Between the ages of 27 and 31 you have the best chances in cycling."
Don't worry. I think DC might have already informally arrived at an agreement with Basso. I think, once Basso is cleared, he and DC will ink and announce a two- or three-year agreement. Leipheimer could be leader for Giro, I think, Paris Nice and Dauphine Libere. I suspect Levi will ride the Tour in support of Basso, who will not ride the Giro in 07.
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