Team Discovery riders

smcnay1 said:

Hello!

I am doing some research on Team Discovery and Lance Armstrong and was hoping that someone here might be able to help me!😄

I am trying to figure out who the other 8 riders will be (along with Lance) in the Tour de France. Have they been announced yet? If not, do you know when they will be announced?

Also, if you could explain to me the concept of substitutions, who can sub? Is it like football or baseball where you have a team of x number of people, but only y number of them can be on the 'feild' (or in this case, on the road) at one time? Like I said, I am just resesearching and am still trying to learn about this!!

thanks!
S.

Discovery team for the TdF has not been announced and will not be until very near the start time. There are, of course, likely members: LA, Azevedo, Popo, Beltran, Eki, Chechu, Hincapie. But won't know for sure until the last minute.

You cannot sub during the Tour. All riders ride every stage and must complete the stage within the time limit (as determined by a percentage of the winner's time) in order to continue.

TCK, thanks for the info!

tcklyde said:

You cannot sub during the Tour. All riders ride every stage and must complete the stage within the time limit (as determined by a percentage of the winner's time) in order to continue.

Even if someone is hurt? There would never be a sub in for any reason? I just need to make sure i have my facts straight!

thanks again!
S

smcnay1 said:

TCK, thanks for the info!

Even if someone is hurt? There would never be a sub in for any reason? I just need to make sure i have my facts straight!

thanks again!
S

Once the race starts, no sub, for any reason.

Maybe Savoldelli, but he`s going to Giro so there`s big question about it..

Virenque said:

Maybe Savoldelli, but he`s going to Giro so there`s big question about it..

Will he be ready for the Giro given his injury? I suspect that they would substitute with someone else and make sure he is good shape for the tour.

smcnay1 said:

Hello!

I am doing some research on Team Discovery and Lance Armstrong and was hoping that someone here might be able to help me!😄

I am trying to figure out who the other 8 riders will be (along with Lance) in the Tour de France. Have they been announced yet? If not, do you know when they will be announced?

Also, if you could explain to me the concept of substitutions, who can sub? Is it like football or baseball where you have a team of x number of people, but only y number of them can be on the 'feild' (or in this case, on the road) at one time? Like I said, I am just resesearching and am still trying to learn about this!!

thanks!
S.

Check on Cycling4all.com closer to July for the Discovery TDF team.

http://www.cycling4all.com/

...you can also check the McDonalds and KFC websites for updates and it seems Lance has spent a lot of time over the winter there..... have you seen how fat he is..... geeezzzzz......... :p

Powerful Pete said:

Will he be ready for the Giro given his injury? I suspect that they would substitute with someone else and make sure he is good shape for the tour.

He`s riding Paris-Nice at the moment! He recovered very fast! He will ride the giro for sure because he`s italian, GT specialist and former winner! Of course if he will not fall again😕

Virenque said:

He`s riding Paris-Nice at the moment! He recovered very fast! He will ride the giro for sure because he`s italian, GT specialist and former winner! Of course if he will not fall again😕

Ah thanks! I had missed that he was racing again already. I guess when you crash and brake things so often you get better at healing quickly!🙄

Anyway good for him. I would like him to have a fighting shot at the Giro.

Yeah me too! I wish him big come back after all bad luck through last few years!

I agree with above posts re: likely DC team at Tour. The remaining riders are likey to be (1) Noval and (2) one of Salvodelli (after he rides the Giro) or Padnros (probably also riding the Giro).

What about Danielson? I think he`s going to Giro or/and Vuelta!

Virenque said:

What about Danielson? I think he`s going to Giro or/and Vuelta!

Bruyneel said that the team at Paris-Nice was the Tour team, so that would be:

Discovery Channel Team
51 Lance Armstrong (USA)
52 José Azevedo (Por)
53 Manuel Beltran (Spa)
54 Tom Danielson (USA)
55 Viatceslav Ekimov (Rus)
56 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr)
57 José Luis Rubiera (Spa)
58 Paolo Savoldelli (Ita)

micron said:

Bruyneel said that the team at Paris-Nice was the Tour team, so that would be:

Discovery Channel Team
51 Lance Armstrong (USA)
52 José Azevedo (Por)
53 Manuel Beltran (Spa)
54 Tom Danielson (USA)
55 Viatceslav Ekimov (Rus)
56 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr)
57 José Luis Rubiera (Spa)
58 Paolo Savoldelli (Ita)

That is impossible for two reasons:

1) First, the TdF team has nine riders. The missing rider is Noval.

2) Second, Hincapie is DEFINITELY going to be on the Team.

Bruyneel might have meant the originally-announced DC team for P-N is the team destined for the Tour. That original announcement had George Hincapie in lieu of Danielson. Danielson doesn't get to go to the Tour. Bruyneel has told him his season main objective is the Giro.

Hincapie decided to switch to Tirreno-Adriatico, some time after he won K-B-K, and that race conflicts with Paris-Nice. Why not, given how strong Stijn Devolder is and how helpful Devolder can be to Hincapie?

In Salvodelli's first major inteview with Cyclingnews after he signed onto DC, he said that Padrnos was going to help him when he was leader of the Giro (further confirming Padrnos is off the Tour team) and that he (Salvodelli) could ride in the Tour if he wanted to.

Kicking Padrnos off the Tour team is a good idea because Padrnos is not as useful as Salvodelli in the mountains. Padrnos' power in the TTT wasn't necessary any more at the margin, because DC was winning the TTT by greater margins than the time gain permitted under the 2004 cap on time loss by lower-placing teams. So, as between Padrnos and Salvodelli, Padrnos loses. Here's why:

-- Salvodelli is not a bad ITT and can probably train to improve his TTT.

-- As I have highlighted before on this board, there are fewer mountain top finishes in the TdF this year than before. Having Salovdelli (the Falcon) be available to assist with descents might allow the team to preserve some time gained during stages where there are mountains, but there are descents after the climbs. While Salvodelli is not a super climber, he is:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Better than Padrnos on the climbs

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Super (one of the very best in the peloton) on descents.

Having even more people who can climb than 04 is going to open up strategic options of the whole team going on a breakway even when the climbs are not at the end of a stage, during multiple-mountain stages. As I described a long time ago, Salvodelli would be on the tour team because he does increase strategic flexibility in the mountain stages, which are crucial.