Category: Story (Discovery Channel by squire, PCM09)

After being disbanded in 2007, the Discovery Channel team came back just two years later - to enter the 2009 campaign with almost the same roster and no less than Lance Armtrong leading the squad. One of the first highlights in the comeback season would be the Tour of California (held in February): with Levi Leipheimer (35) and Jaroslav Popovych (29) as the team's captains. And how they delivered: Popovych stormed to an impressive victory in stage three, where he attacked a small group of favorites to take yellow. In another key stage - an ITT on day seven - Discovery Channel held all cards in their hands, as also Levi Leipheimer took a narrow stage-win (beating Fabian Cancellara by one second) to move up to 2nd in the GC.

The duo did well to then defend this 1-2 in the GC and turn their team's comeback into a huge success: "Team Discovery Channel is back in style!" (Squire)... Popovych would then go on to podium Paris - Nice as 3rd in the GC (grabbing another stage-win). And speaking of success: this award winning story (Team story of the year 2010) would just become one big hit on PCMDaily - being continued until the end of the Tour de France 2011 with a total of 60 pages.