Levi Leipheimer (Photo: capture-the-peloton.com)

AUSTIN, Jun 27 (CP) - The American ProTour team Discovery Channel hosted a phone-in press conference on Wednesday, in order to announce its nine riders for the Tour de France. Other things were discussed as well however, and Cyclingpost.com was there.

Several subjects were discussed during the conference, with the upcoming Tour, the fight against doping and the future being most important.

The Tour

Team director Johan Bruyneel said that the main target for this year's Tour de France is a podium spot for Levi Leipheimer.

Leipheimer himself is excited about his position at the team. "It means a lot to me to ride the Tour as leader for the classification, at the team where I started my career, then US Postal."

Bruyneel considers Astana rider Alexandre Vinokourov as main tip for the Tour, but does question what the Kazakh's tactic will be. "He is normally aggressive, but this is the first time he is in the role of favorites. Others won't let him go. I expect him to be conservative and attack on the final climbs."

Asked who else could be a rival to Leipheimer, Bruyneel answered: "Andreas Klöden has finished on the podium in the past, but he rides in the same team as Vinokourov. As Astana is a Kazakh team, I assume Vinokourov will have to win it."

"Carlos Sastre Candil is always there as well, and other favorites are Cadel Evans, Vladimir Karpets and Denis Menchov. It's always hard to mention a list like this."

Leipheimer himself commented on the actual stages in the Tour, particularly pointing out stage eight, to Tignes on July 15th, and the Pyrenees stages. "I think that the Pyrenees are tougher than the Alps this year, also because they're in the last week."

Discovery were initially expected to bring along Tom Danielson but the American was eventually left home: "Danielson had stomach problems before the Dauphiné Libéré, and he isn't strong enough. It was a difficult choice but we chose security and experience.

Doping issues

Recently it was announced that Tour de France riders now have to sign a declaration saying that they will not use doping. Bruyneel said to be surprised at first, but that all team managers agreed that something had to change.

The Belgian also commented on the independent doping tests performed by Team CSC and T-Mobile: "Maybe I shouldn't say this, but I'll say it anyway. I don't think teams can do that much more as the UCI is strict enough. Riders get tested all the time. Two hours ago one of my riders called me saying he was tested at his home."

"Those teams have been involved in scandals last year, and they now want to improve their reputation by talking about their anti-doping program a lot. We perform tests too, but we prefer not to talk much about it. In the last twelve years, nobody at our team tested positive."

Sponsorship

About finding a new sponsor, Bruyneel said: "Whether we can find a new sponsor also depends on our performance in this Tour de France."

The manager was also asked whether doping scandals make it harder to find a new sponsor, and answered saying that that was indeed the case.

The Tour is always special

A question that seemed to surprise Leipheimer was whether it would mean less to him to win the Tour, as many top riders won't be there due to retirements or suspensions:

"I don't see how that would diminish the Tour. It's a unique event, three weeks long and very heavy. The best 200 riders in the world will appear at the start."

© Jonathan Roorda