I'm lovin' this thread. I've been a fan of cycling since 86', and the 7 Eleven riders were the first of my heros alongside Sean Kelly in his KAS days. I was particularly a fan of Davis Phinney. It was a joy to watch the team evolve over the years into Motorola, then Postal, and now Discovery. It burns me when all of the new school cycling critics and cynics, the bandwagon jumpers who discovered cycling in 2003 when Lance was going for number 5 and just want to make a name for themselves by citing "expert" doping allegations, are oblivious to this long and great history of the team. 7 Eleven was a novelty back in its first days in the European peleton until they started to make waves with Andy Hampstien, and now the red and green machines great-grandchildren, the Discovery boys, are a force to be reckoned with.
Thanks for bringing back some great memories. Let the losers at L'equipe dig up their pointless drug scandels. I'm gonna do what a real cycling fan does; dig out the old issues of "Winning", dust 'em off, and remenisce over pictures of Jeff Pierce winning on the Champs Elysees, Hampstein on the Gavia in a blizzard, and Phinney showing us all what American cycling is all about.
Slurpees and "Huffys" forever!