Anyone else hear Lance’s comment about wishing he could have Ullrich be the team leader for discovery, and that if he was he would surely win the tour. It was practically an invitation.
If only he did…
Ain’t gonna happen. LA is coming back. And he’ll beat Ullrich yet again when he does.
RP
A comment in bicycle mag this month said the same thing. Dunno what the sources are but the rumor is Jan will be moving to Disco to be the leader until Popovych is ready.
Man, that would be simply amazing. I always felt for the guy. You know not being able to win any stages because lance was too worried about him getting any time on em. I sure hope he gets a team around him sometime soon that will work for him. It would be nice
Wow, that would be cool. Jan and Lance on the same team. On stage 16, Lance decides that Jan deserves to win a tour and becomes Jan’s superdomestique 
There is a great photo of Jan & Lance in the German version of Pro Cycling magazine (probably the English version as well). Its just after stage 1, Jan is congratulating Lance after he passed him in the first TT. The photo highlights Jan’s sportsmanship and his true spirit, he seems like a truly nice guy. Now for next year, If Lance and Jan were to ever ride a TTT together…scary!
Dave in VA
Can you say “Hinault”?
Can you say “Hinault”?
Can you say Rudy Pevenage? Not going to happen.
Source? Link?
I mentioned this in the middle of Le Tour…you take Jan’s raw ability and couple that with Lance’s training/science/discipline and you’ll have someone able to hand Lance’s ass in any race.
My thought is that Lance will return, but not to lead.
JU to Disco would be amazing!!!
Rudy Pevenage
Damn. you were right. nothing happened. 
Quote: “Ain’t gonna happen. LA is coming back. And he’ll beat Ullrich yet again when he does.”
Robert,
I can appreciate your desire to LA win another TDF, but it ain’t gonna happen either. LA has nothing else left to prove other than perhaps the advance of age will ultimately diminish his dominance of this event. Now if he does return to try for another, I will be surprised more than others and will kindly choke down those words of dismissal for you. Likewise, I will enjoy watching LA race some more.
As for Ullrich, he is under contract with T-Mobile and he isn’t going to give up his coaches and what he knows and is comfortable with to switch to Discovery. From his point of view, LA is now out of the way, so he can now win the TDF again, finally.
For Ullrich to switch to Discovery, he would also be admitting his present team and coaches just can’t get it done. I don’t see him reaching that conclusion even though some of us onlookers may, in fact, believe this to be true.
I don’t necessarily want to see LA win another TdF. And I don’t really care if he races again or not. But he has said this week that he might return to the TdF next year “just to piss off the French again.” His comments may have been tongue in cheek, but those words also mean he’s thinking about it. After a couple of months, maybe he’s figured out retirement isn’t all he thought it would be. Eki is racing into his late 30’s; LA has several more good years left if he wants to keep going. And apparently, it’s on his mind.
If he does enter the TdF in '06, he’ll win again. What’s to make anyone think he wouldn’t? He absolutely dominated the race again this year, and did what he wanted to do and no one could stop him – not Ullrich, not Basso, not anybody else.
Even if LA doesn’t race again, I don’t see Jan going to Discovery for precisely the reasons you listed.
My comments were a light-hearted and a bit cynical. I am a Lance fan, but I’m not chomping at the bit to see him race again. Well, maybe I do want to see him race, but mainly so OLN will cover cycling again next year. Lance is our ticket to seeing cycling coverage on TV. Other than that, LA getting on the bike again isn’t a big deal to me. I’d much rather see him get back in the tri scene.
RP