Season 2010
A successful season for the sport of cycling is concluded. No teams have folded and no major riders has been caught doping (Brice Feillu, I'm watching you though). This year saw Cunego move out of Italy to join up with Katusha for quite a successful year, Pozzato moved back to his Mapei friends in Quick-Step and Gesink left Rabobank to ride his own chances at Quick-Step. Contador had his second year without support from the big guns at Astana, but he did fairly well anyway. Significantly, Valverde finally reached his GT winning potensial. New star Roman Kreuziger also emerged this season.
Grand Tours
Tour de France
Alberto Contador (Astana Cycling Team)
Giro d'Italia
Roman Kreuziger (Discovery Channel)
Vuelta a España
Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne)
We can mention two notable firsts here: Kreuziger's first GT win and Valverde's. The Giro elevated Kreuziger to top GT rider status, while Valverde's Vuelta win saw him finally confirmed as one. Contador got his revenge in the Tour after the 1 second loss of 2009.
Quick-Step are the big winners here, collecting three monuments. Boonen won his 4th Roubaix to equal De Flaeminck and his 4th Flanders to set a new record of his own. Chavanel had his best year ever, winning MSR in addition to Paris-Nice and a Tour stage. Philippe Gilbert dominated the Ardennes, winning all of them including La Doyenne.
World Championships
Road race
Fabian Cancellara (Team Saxo Bank)
Time trial
Fabian Cancellara (Team Saxo Bank)
Cancellara will be shining like the rainbow everywhere he goes next year. Both Worlds wins were obtained in dominant fashion, and the team who signs him next year are guaranteed some big wins.
UCI Pro Tour
Individual
1.
Alejandro Valverde
Caisse d'Epargne
783
2.
Roman Kreuziger
Discovery Channel
658
3.
Alberto Contador
Astana Cycling Team
498
4.
Lance Armstrong
Discovery Channel
393
5.
Philippe Gilbert
Silence - Lotto
392
For the second year in a row, Alejandro Valverde wins the ProTour's individual rankings. His victory came as a result of wins in La Vuelta and Pais Vasco, while he placed 2nd in Paris-Nice and Catalunya. He didn't dominate the small stage races like last year, but his Vuelta win more than makes up for it. Roman Kreuziger came a brilliant 2nd for us in the rankings, helped by his Giro win, Romandie win and 5th in La Vuelta. Of course some strong Ardennes performances boosted both Valverde and Kreuziger.
Team
1.
Discovery Channel
2512
2.
Caisse d'Epargne
1507
3.
Quick-Step
1269
4.
Team Saxo Bank
1174
5.
Rabobank
965
...............................
17.
Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team
151
18.
Team Milram
83
The two newly promoted teams saw some very different fortunes. We won the entire ProTour, a great achievement, while Vacansoleil went straight down to the second tier again. They followed Milram, who were utterly useless.
Daniele Pietropolli was a one-man-army for Ceramica, and takes them up in the ProTour almost on his own. Many of his points came from winning the Brixia Tour and the Tour de l'Ain, and he also collected lots of Italian one-day races to make it 10 victories alltogether. French outfit Agritubel follows the Italians up to the big boys. Kevin Ista and Romain Feillu were the main point hunters for Agritubel. That means Cofidis and Bbox must stay another year in the Continental Tour.
Edited by Squire on 17-11-2010 20:12
Our second season after the comeback is over, and if I thought our first one was successful, then what was this one? Sure, we didn't win the Tour this year, which was the main goal, but our other results were nothing short of fantastic. The overall win in the Giro d'Italia stands out as our biggest achievement, with Roman Kreuziger paying back the faith shown in him. Kreuziger was amazing this season, and I will have no worries in letting him take over the leader role when the years catch up on Lance, Klöden & Levi.
We finally got ourselves a sprinter in Gerald Ciolek, who brought us six victories and a strong podium in the Vattenfall Cyclassics. As opposed to last year, we were also a force in the Ardennes classics, with the maturing Velits and the ever-present Kreuziger producing the goods. Lance Armstrong felt the curse of the rainbow jersey, but once he got rid of it, he took a monumental win in the season closer Giro di Lombardia.
1st. cat
GP Triberg - Schwarzwald (Benjamin Noval)
Sparkassen Munsterland Giro (Bernhard Eisel)
Chrono des Nations (Vladimir Gusev)
NC
Russian National Championship (Vladimir Gusev)
German National ITT Championship (Andreas Klöden)
Portugese National ITT Championship (Sergio Paulinho)
American National ITT Championship (Levi Leipheimer)
As opposed to last season break, a lot of important riders are out of contract in this transfer season. Notably, riders like Cancellara, Menchov, Pellizotti, Napolitano, Scarponi, Haussler and Flecha are expected to change teams.
But first some breaking news...
T-Mobile returns as cycling sponsor
German telecommunications giant T-Mobile has once again opened their checkbook to sponsor a cycling team following Columbia's withdrawal from sponsoring Bob Stapleton's team. T-Mobile ended their involvment in cycling in 2007 following a series of drugs scandals, but will now fund the same team as they left.
The new T-Mobile squad have made several big name signings following the influx of German cash, most notably Peter Velits and Linus Gerdemann from Discovery Channel. Patrik Sinkewitz gets another chance with his old team after he has proved his ability to ride clean with the small Czech team PSK.
Another German company follows suit, welcomes back Riccò
Only hours after T-Mobile announced their return to the peloton of professional cycling, German company Saunier Duval said in a press release that they would also return to sponsorship for the 2011 season. The successor of the old Saunier Duval team, low-budget team Fuji-Servetto, will now be rejuvenated and brought back to former glory.
The increase in budget has seen the team seriously overhauled. New signings like Pellizotti, Oscar Sevilla and Dani Navarro has been made, but the main headline is Riccardo Riccò's return from doping suspension. The self-proclaimed 'Cobra' will once again wear the feared yellow-and-white jersey of the Saunier Duval team.
Team Type 1 David Zabriskie (Garmin - Transitions)
Vacansoleil Nicolas Roche (AG2R La Mondiale)
Mikhail Ignatiev (Katusha)
With Fabian Cancellara finding a new home in Liqugias, Saxo Bank find themselves incredibly rich. They have run rampant on the transfer market this year, and secured stars like Menchov, Haussler and Urán to go with the Schlecks and Devolder. They will be massive in stage races next year!
Euskaltel will be one of the leading teams in the mountains in 2011. The signing of Plaza gives them four strong climbers to field in stage races, with Sanchez, Anton and David Lopez being the other three.
On the flat roads, who can beat Quick-Step? Boonen, Pozzato, Chavanel, Weylandy, Van Avermaet and Napolitano are good enough to wipe the floor with anyone on flat stages and cobbles. Scarponi arrives to help Gesink and Barredo in the mountains.
With their new signings, continental team Vacansoleil are favourites to go straight back to the ProTour again. ProTour new boys Ceramica Flaminia and Agritubel haven't made any significant signings, and are favourites for the drop together with the likes of Garmin (unless Wiggins and Farrar step it up) and AG2R, although the GT performances of Valjavec and Efimkin will probably save the Frenchies as usual.
Now, let's look at who Discovery have aquired, and what our plans are for the next season. It's time for the 2011 team presentation!
At the end of last season, there were discontent among some riders who didn't feel they got enough chances to ride for themselves. This was especially true for Gerdemann & Larsson. The Swede obviously didn't think the Tour of Poland was big enough for his ambitions. Mind you, he couldn't even win it. Oscar Pereiro was missing his family back in Spain, while Peter Velits joined Gerdemann in a big-money move to T-Mobile. Velits will be the one we'll miss the most, as we don't have anybody else with his specific qualities. The others are easily replacable stage racers and time trialists.
Outgoing riders
Oscar Pereiro (Caisse d'Epargne) Gustav Larsson (Silence - Lotto) Peter Velits (T-Mobile) Linus Gerdemann (T-Mobile)
But we wouldn't let them go without bringing in some replacements...
As far as leader roles go, we have decided to mainly stick with what we've got. The Discovery TV Channel is going through a tough time, so our lower budget restricted the quality of riders a bit. However, I believe we have gotten good value for our money.
Signings for 2011
Taylor Phinney
The only one I've been hinting at earlier. Young time trial sensation Taylor Phinney has been riding for our development squad, and performed strongly in the US National Championship and the Worlds at the end of last year. Strong enough for us to sign him. It'll be exciting to follow his further development.
Haimar Zubeldia
The experienced Basque stage racer has finished 5th in the Tour de France twice, and brings a lot of pedigree to our Grand Tour team. The former Astana rider is very welcome as a replacement for the outgoing domestiques. Zubeldia is not as strong as he once was, but he could be given his own chances in smaller races, or maybe the Vuelta?
Andrew Talansky
Now this is an interesting young man. Having ridden the past few years for Amore & Vita, Talansky finally takes the step up into the ProTour. The young American is first and foremost a sprinter, and will be looking to continue his development with us. Expect to see him mostly in domestic races.
Sergio Pardilla
This Spanish climber from the CarmioOro team is our wildcard signing. We honestly don't know what we're getting, as his last season was hampered by injuries. He only managed to notch up 10 race days, and has never really done anything big. However, his test results show good promise, and we hope to transfer that talent into success on the road.
Cameron Meyer
Having spent the 2010 season without a team after being released from Garmin in 2009, Cameron Meyer is given a chance with us. The young man is already a decent time trialist, and will be a useful man in the early parts of stages as well as in team time trials.
The team
Our team this season contains 28 riders, of which one fourth are American. We have five Spaniards and 14 nationalities in total.
The jersey
Discovery riders showing off the new jersey on a pre season training camp.
Our jersey this year is a return to the design of the first ever Discovery Channel jersey back in 2005.
The leaders
Lance Armstrong
After his failure to win the Tour in 2010, Lance Armstrong has decided to skip the Tour this year. In what will probably be his last year as a top international cyclist, the eight-time Tour winner targets Paris - Nice, Tour de Suisse and a third consecutive Lombardia triumph. We've always been struggling in the Tour de Suisse, so we hope Armstrong can be successful in his main mid-season race. He'll use the Giro as a form builder for Switzerland.
Roman Kreuziger
Our new poster boy and rising star will once again be given the leading role in the Giro d'Italia. We hope to make it two-in-a-row there, and are giving him some serious support, most notably Lance Armstrong. Kreuziger will also be our main man in the Ardennes after the departure of Peter Velits.
Levi Leipheimer
This year, Levi is our main Tour leader. His 4th place in 2010 shows that he's capable of great things, and the Tour de France 2011 is very time trial-heavy, with two long ITTs and a TTT. This will suit Levi perfectly. He also targets his 4th California win.
