Giro d'Italia - Discovery Channel Announces Team
Discovery Channel finalizes it's Giro squad and declares itself ready for the first Grand Tour

Team Discovery Channel Ready for the Giro d'Italia
The Discovery Channel Team today finalized the roster of riders who will compete at the 2007 Giro d’Italia, May 12 – June 3. Bringing a wealth of experience in three-week stage races, the squad will focus their efforts on placing team leader, Yaroslav Popovych, as high up as possible in the overall standings.

Discovery Channel’s Giro d’Italia Squad
1. Yaroslav Popovych
2. Volodomyr Bileka
3. Steve Cummings
4. Pavel Padrnos
5. Jose Luis “Chechu” Rubiera
6. Tomas Vaitkus
7. Brian Vandborg
8. Jurgen Van Goolen
9. Matthew “Whitey” White

In all, the nine Discovery Channel riders have started 58 Grand Tours, 25 of those coming from the Giro d’Italia, and it is that depth of experience that has Sean Yates, Discovery Channel lead Sports Director for the Giro, very optimistic.

Victory for Popo stage 12 2006 Tour de France.  Photo c. Fotoreporter Sirotti

“[Ivan] Basso leaving our squad was certainly a loss but is not a disaster,” said Yates. “Popo was always preparing to do a good Giro and I think he is on form. If all goes right for him I think he can be on the podium like he has been in the past.”

“Aside from working for Popo we will try to win at least one stage and wear the leaders jersey too, but that can be complicated and waste energy. We have a strong group of guys with a lot of experience in grand tours and Popo will need all of their help and wisdom to get him onto the podium.”

Popo in the prologue of the 2006 tour Photo c. Fotoreporter Sirotti

Discovery’s Popovych is not unproven in Grand Tours. The 27-year-old Ukrainian has competed in 5 Grand Tours (3 Giro d’Italia / 2 Tour de France) finishing third and fifth in the 2003 and 2004 editions respectively. Popovych also won the best young rider competition at the 2005 edition of the Tour de France, finishing 12th overall in the process.

For more information on Team Discovery Channel, including videos and photos, go to www.thepaceline.com or www.teamdiscovery.com.

TAILWIND SPORTS: Tailwind Sports owns and operates the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team. Founded in 1989, the team has established itself as one of the best in the world and is the only American team to have won each of the sports’ premier events: the Tour de France, Tour of Spain and Tour of Italy, including Lance Armstrong’s historic seven consecutive victories at the Tour de France.

Tailwind has partnered with Capital Sports & Entertainment (CSE), an experiential event and sports marketing firm based in Austin, Texas to manage the sponsorship and operations of the team. Tailwind supports both USA Cycling and the USA Cycling Development Foundation to help identify and develop future American cyclists. Find out more about the Team and CSE at: www.thepaceline.com and www.planetcse.com

Discovery Communications, Inc.: Discovery Communications, Inc. is the number-one nonfiction media company reaching more than 1.5 billion people in over 170 countries. Through TV and new media, Discovery's 100-plus worldwide networks include Discovery Channel, TLC, Travel Channel, Animal Planet and Discovery Health. DCI is owned by Discovery Holding Co. (NASDAQ: DISCA, DISCB), Cox Communications Inc., Advance/Newhouse Communications and John S. Hendricks, Discovery’s founder and chairman. For more information please visit www.discovery.com.