U.S. Postal Service Pro Cycling Team was a United States-based professional

road bicycle racing Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on Road surface, paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional sport, professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and ...

team. On June 15, 2004, the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...

signed a deal to become sponsor of the team for the 2004–2007 seasons and its name changed to Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team (). From 2005 until 2007, the team was one of the 20 teams that competed in the new UCI ProTour. As part of the sponsorship deal, Lance Armstrong, the team's undisputed leader, provided on-air appearances for the Discovery Networks TV channels. The deal did not affect the rights of secondary sponsor OLN, now known as NBC Sports Network in the US, to air major cycling events such as the Tour de France, although the two channels are competitors. The team was directed by Belgian

Johan Bruyneel Johan Bruyneel (born 23 August 1964) is a Belgian former professional road bicycle racer and a former directeur sportif for UCI ProTour team , and (later known as Discovery Channel), a US-based UCI ProTour cycling team. On 25 October 2018, the W ...

, who also managed U.S. Postal. The chief mechanic was Julien DeVries. The team was co-owned by Tailwind Sports Corp. of San Francisco and Capital Sports & Entertainment of Austin, Texas. On February 10, 2007, Discovery Channel announced that it would not renew its sponsorship of the team at the end of the 2007 season. On August 10, 2007 the cycling team announced that it would not search for a new sponsor, but cease operations and disband at the end of the 2007 season. In October 2012

USADA The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA, ) is a non-profit, non-governmental 501(c)(3) organization and the national anti- doping organization (NADO) for the United States. To protect clean competition and the integrity of sport and prevent d ...

released a report saying that the team had run "the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme the sport has ever seen". The report contained affidavits from eleven riders on the team including Frankie Andreu, Tyler Hamilton, George Hincapie,

Floyd Landis Floyd Landis (born October 14, 1975) is an American former professional road racing cyclist. He finished first at the 2006 Tour de France, and would have been the third non-European winner in the event's history, but was disqualified after test ...

, Levi Leipheimer, and others, describing their own usage of

erythropoietin Erythropoietin (; EPO), also known as erythropoetin, haematopoietin, or haemopoietin, is a glycoprotein cytokine secreted mainly by the kidneys in response to cellular hypoxia; it stimulates red blood cell production (erythropoiesis) in the bo ...

(EPO), blood transfusion, testosterone, and other banned practices during the Tour de France and other races. They also implicated seven-time Tour winner Armstrong. On October 22, 2012 the UCI upheld the USADA's recommendation to strip Armstrong of all results since August 1, 1998, and ban him from cycling for life. In February 2013, the US government joined Landis' False Claims Act lawsuit against Armstrong, alleging that Armstrong had defrauded the US Postal Service of sponsorship funds by violating cycling rules by using performance-enhancing drugs while riding for the team.

Team rosters

Final season

On August 10, 2007, Tailwind Sports announced the end of the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team. Tailwind officials stopped their search for a new title sponsor for the Discovery team, citing the current tumultuous conditions within the sport of cycling. Team operations continued until the end of the 2007 season. After the 2007 season Johan Bruyneel went to rebuild

Team Astana Astana Qazaqstan Team () is a professional road bicycle racing cycling team, team sponsored by the Samruk-Kazyna, a coalition of state-owned companies from Kazakhstan and named after its capital (political), capital city Astana. Astana attained U ...

for the 2008 season. He brought with him much of Discovery's personnel, such as riders Alberto Contador, Levi Leipheimer, Yaroslav Popovych, Tomas Vaitkus, and coach Sean Yates. The 2007 U.S. national road champion George Hincapie signed a contract for the 2008 season Team High Road, later known as Team HTC-Columbia, run by the American Bob Stapleton.

Final squad (2007)

''As of April 30, 2007. Ages are from August 10, 2007.

Former members of Discovery Channel

Former members of U.S. Postal

Notable wins

2005 results

2006 results

2007 results

U.S. Postal Service Pro Cycling Team history

The US Postal Service Pro Cycling Team and later named the US Postal Service Pro Cycling Team presented by Berry Floor operated from 1996 through 2004. The United States Postal Service was the title (primary) sponsor from 1996 through 2004 and the team was nicknamed the "Blue Train". Berry Floor, a Belgian flooring company, was the secondary sponsor, also known as a Presenting Sponsor. Domestically the USPS Pro Cycling Team was presented by Alloc, the American subsidiary of Berry Floor. Lance Armstrong won six Tours de France (1999–2004) (that were later stripped) with US Postal, and in 2003 Roberto Heras—at that time a US Postal rider—won the Vuelta a España. Armstrong went on to win a seventh Tour de France in 2005 (that was later also stripped), after the USPS contract and sponsorship ended. The US Postal Service announced that it would cease sponsorship at the end of the 2004 racing season when its eight-year contract expired. It had previously been under fire for the expenditure from organizations such as Postal Watch, a website critical of the United States Postal Service. Legitimate problems of mismanagement and sloppy accounting were pointed out by the Postal Service itself, via the USPS Office of the Inspector General. Before the expiration of the USPS contract, Armstrong insisted that he would only continue to ride with the USPS team structure. This demand was met on June 15, 2004 when Discovery Networks stepped in and agreed to sponsor the team for the next three years as the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team.

1996 results

With the help of

Thomas Weisel Thomas "Thom" Weisel (born February 1941) is an American banker, businessman, and investor. He was one of the pioneers in the development of the high tech industry in Silicon Valley. Weisel is the founder of Montgomery Securities and later Th ...

and

Eddie Borysewicz Edward Borysewicz (March 18, 1939 – November 16, 2020), sometimes known as "Eddie B", was a cycling coach who brought the United States to world prominence, even though at first he barely spoke English. The US team, under his direction, won ni ...

, the United States Postal Service begins its reign as title sponsor to what has become the most successful cycling team from the United States. Borysewicz served as the team's directeur sportif and the team raced mainly in domestic events in the United States.

1997 results

Thomas Weisel brought in

Mark Gorski Mark Brian Gorski (born January 6, 1960) is a 1984 Olympic Gold medal-winning cyclist in the 1000m match sprint from the United States. He attended Lake Park High School in Roselle, Illinois and the University of Michigan. Gorski was a member ...

, the 1984 Olympic Gold Medalist in the Men's 1000 m Sprint (Scratch) event, as

team manager A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interdependent with respect to infor ...

. Due in large part to Russian

Viatcheslav Ekimov Viatcheslav Vladimirovich Ekimov (Russian Вячеслав Владимирович Екимов; born 4 February 1966), nicknamed ''Eki'', is a Russian former professional racing cyclist. A triple Olympic gold medalist, he was awarded the titl ...

and his key stage wins at

Paris–Nice Paris–Nice is a professional cycling stage race in France, held annually since 1933. Raced over eight days, the race usually starts with a prologue in the Paris region and ends with a final stage either in Nice or on the Col d'Èze overlookin ...

and the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré, the USPS squad got its first invitation to ride in the Tour de France.

1998 results

Lance Armstrong joined the US Postal team in late 1997, when returning to professional cycling following his cancer treatments.

1999 results

2000 results

2001 results

In 2001, the U.S. Postal Service Pro Cycling Team was named the USOC Team of the Year. Also, Armstrong was named USOC SportsMan of the Year, which he also won in 1999.

2002 results

2003 results

2004 results

Early history and notable wins

1988–1989 – Sunkyong (Amateur)

, known as "Eddy B", was the road coach of a pro/amateur cycling team formed by George Taylor and sponsored by Sunkyong, a South Korea-based manufacturing and industrial conglomerate. At the

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the secon ...

, Borysewicz served as the U.S. Olympic Cycling Coach and led American cyclists to an unprecedented nine Olympic medals.

1992–1994 – Subaru-Montgomery

Subaru ( or ; ) is the automaker, automobile manufacturing division of Japanese transportation conglomerate (company), conglomerate Subaru Corporation (formerly known as Fuji Heavy Industries), the Automotive industry#By manufacturer, twenty-first ...

and Montgomery Securities, led by Thomas Weisel, serve as co-title sponsors.

1995 – Montgomery-Bell

Montgomery Securities Chief Executive Thomas W. Weisel, an avid cyclist, continued his support for cycling.

References

External links

{{Vuelta a España team classification winners Cycling teams based in the United States Defunct cycling teams based in the United States Former UCI WorldTeams United States Postal Service Discovery Channel Cycling teams established in 1988 Cycling teams disestablished in 2007 1988 establishments in the United States 2007 disestablishments in the United States