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Proof positive that doping scandals have bent the once-upward trend of cycling's growth as a sport in the US and perhaps abroad: the quiet announcement this past week that Discovery Racing, the dominant team Lance Armstrong rode to seven Tour de France titles, was disbanding and ceasing operations. The leadership cadre at the team (which included Armstrong) announced they were stepping aside for a number of reasons, and most definitely not because they could not find a sponsor. If you'll pull out your political communications handbook, it will tell you that almost certainly means it's because the group could not find a sponsor for the team, even though Lance Armstrong says they had a deal "90 percent" done before negotiations broke down.
Consider if Man U, the Yankees, or the Dallas Cowboys vanished overnight. That may be exaggerating just a tad for effect, but that's effectively what just happened to cycling: an instant disappearance of what was the most dominant squad in the sport over the past decade. That's the cost of doping scandals made horribly clear on the market, with the most valuable commodity cycling has to offer left sitting on the shelf to expire, potential sponsors too scared of the future of the sport to even consider taking a flyer on the immediate future of the sport.
(Reader Clare T. Pass points out that Lance won his first six with U.S. Postal, not discovery. Sponsors change, but the team remains the same, a clarification that needs to be made. However, the entity owned by Tailwind, Inc that was called U.S. Postal/Discovery is what's been broken up here.--OS)
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