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Discovery landed the biggest grand tour hopeful when it signed Ivan Basso in the off season. The organization that put Lance Armstrong on the top of the Tour de France podium will try to do it again with Ivan Basso in 2007.
Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team is a US-based professional road bicycle racing team. It is the continuation of the 2004 US Postal Service Pro Cycling Team. Lance Armstrong, seven time Tour de France winner, was its leader (albeit only during the Tour) until July 2005. Since 2005, the team is one of the 20 teams that compete in the new UCI ProTour.
On June 15 2004, the Discovery Channel signed a deal to become sponsor of the team for the seasons of 2004 until 2008. As part of the sponsorship deal, Armstrong will provide on-air appearances for the Discovery Networks TV Channels, including but not limited to, The Discovery Channel, TLC, and Fit TV.
The deal did not affect the rights of secondary sponsor OLN, now known as Versus in the U.S., to air major cycling events such as the Tour de France, despite the fact that the two channels are competitors.
The team is directed by the Belgian Johan Bruyneel, who also managed U.S. Postal. The chief mechanic is Julien DeVries. The team is co-owned by Tailwind Sports Corp. of San Francisco and Capital Sports & Entertainment of Austin, TX.
In its maiden year, the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team won two of the three Grand Tours of cycling: The Tour de France (Lance Armstrong) and the Giro d'Italia (Paolo Savoldelli).
