Chiz

I know that 7-11 became Motorola in the early nineties, i.e. it was the same team, really just a change of sponsor.

US Postal became Discovery this year.

Question is, did Motorola become US Postal or was it a completely different team? I followed road racing from around 1990 to 1994 but lost interest until now (building a new road bike at the moment).

I know that Armstrong moved to Cofidis from Motorola, but didn't they "release" him after his diagnosis?

If the teams are the same then that means he re-joined his original team when he joined US Postal in 1998.

Delta

Only Lance was on all those teams. So I would say no, Discovery is not the same team as Motorola.

Chiz

I mean was it purely a change of sponsor?

If not, what happened to the Motorola team?

socalrider

1st american team - 7/11

2nd - Motorola
3rd - US Postal
4th - Discovery

The main sponsors changed and the coaches changed a few times but it is the only major us sponsored team in europe..

DieselDan

I think that 7-11 was sold to Tailwind and was sponsered by Motorola, then USPS picked up sponsership in 1998, and finally Discovery Channel Networks in 2005. The ownership is the same, just different sponser and coaches, but same ownership.

Still was pretty damn cool to see George Hincapie win a stage after busting his arse in 10 straight Tours de France.

SAB

That's right. Team 7-11 was the first US pro cycling team in the major Tours. I think Tailwind has been the owner for years, while the coaches and sponsorships change. I think the main coach before Bruneel was Jim "Och" Oschowicz (spelling?), but I'm not sure. You can trace everyone's lineage back to the early 7-11 days... If Cofidis had only kept Lance... They must be shooting themselves! Of course it's lucky for us - we kept Lance on a US team and now we've dominated the Tour for nearly a decade! Now Discovery has got to be loving it, since the team has done well in several major races and now Lance is going to win the tour if all goes according to plan. Discovery has already gotten the return on their investment several times over, I'm sure. I worry a little bit about when the Discovery contract runs out - will the team continue to be as dominant without Lance such that they can attract another major sponsor when the time comes. Of course there will never be another Lance Armstrong...

johnny99

Wasn't Hincapie also on Motorola? I think Hincapie has been with Lance ever since the 1992 Olympic team.

Laggard

Yes, he joined Motorola in '94.

F1_Fan

Max van Heeswijk was also a Motorola->USPS->Discovery rider (but not continuously).

MacMan

Frankie Andreu too ... except for the Discovery bit.

fogrider

Thomas Wessel (sp?) I believe is the owner of the team...he also owned the suburu/montgomery team which Lance also raced for.

Note that CSC is a american solftware company.

DieselDan

Liberty Sugerous is the Spanish arm of Liberty Mutual.

You see Motorola as an associate sponser of T-Mobile, but that has more to do with cell phones then cycling.

rufus

yes. US Postal is actually the old Subaru-Montgomery team. at the time, coached by Eddie Borysewicz(sp?) and largely made up of America-based pros with some lower tier foreign riders. began a path moving from racing mainly in the US toward a more european-based racing schedule with the hopes of one day getting into the Tour de france.

Motorola went belly-up, and a lot of their riders, like George, signed on with the former Subaru-Montgomery team, with their new sponsor being US postal. lance signed after being dropped by Cofidis. with the bigger sponsorship, they were now able to become a legitimate contender on the european circuit, and sign on better riders to become more competitive.

not sure if Johan came on when it was still Subaru Montgomery, or after it became US Postal. also not sure when Borysewicz was let go.

allgoo19

This is very informative.