Discovery Cycling Team to Disband

Back in February the Discovery Channel announced that they would not be sponsoring the Discovery Channel Cycling team after this year. Today the team announced that they would disband at the end of this year. Apparently it is harder to find a sponsor for one of the best cycling teams in professional cycling over the last ten years than I thought it would be.

Citing fractious leadership in the sport, constant doping allegations and the struggles of finding a new sponsor, Armstrong and the owners of his former Discovery Channel team said Friday the squad will disband after this season.

So apparently all the doping allegations has all the big dollar companies in the United States too scared to attach their name to a professional cycling team.

I have a potential solution to this problem. What do you think of a team sponsor who agrees to sponsor the team under this one sole condition:

Every rider on this team will agree to train and compete clean. An rider who tests positive for a banned substance will result in the immediate canceling of the corporation's sponsorship of the team.

In other words, if you cheat - you screw not only yourself but every rider and the entire staff of your team.

Of course this extreme measure would require that the entire cycling program be able to prove that their testing procedures and labs are trustworthy. A situation that I don't believe exists today.

I'm going to miss having an American team in the Tour de France next year. I'll watch anyway, but I'll have to cheer for the individual American riders.