The Real American "Tour team"...

We all know that the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team is the only American registered Pro Tour team. And as a result, a large majority of American cycling fans view Team Discovery as "their" home team and support them as such.

I admit it, I follow Discovery as much as any team out there, I pay attetion to their results, I know about all their team members and I read the Paceline.com daily. But I'm not sure that Discovery is really the only home team in the Pro Tour.

I think Team CSC offers just as much American representation in European cycling as Discovery, if not more. Yes, CSC is registered as a Danish team and coached by a Danish Director Sportif, but Discovery is coached by a Belgian, not an American (Ed. note: we think Johan Bruyneel is one of the best directors ever). Yes, the Discovery Channel is an American company based in America, but so is CSC (Computer Sciences Corp).

Let's look at the biggest event on the Pro Tour calendar, the Tour De France. The American registered Discovery Team is sending a strong group to contest the overall in France. Of those nine strong riders, only one hails from the good ole US of A. Compare this to the 7 Americans on the 1999 Tour de France squad that saw the then U.S. Postal Service team on the top step of the podium in Paris. CSC has 3 Americans named to their TdF squad this year.

Team CSC
Carlos Sastre - ESP
Fränk Schleck - LUX
Giovanni Lombardi - ITA
David Zabriskie - USA
Christian Vandevelde - USA
Bobby Julich - USA
Stuart O'Grady - AUS
Jens Voigt - GER
Ivan Basso - ITA

Team Discovery
Jose Azevedo - POR
Viatchslev "Eki" Ekimov - RUS
George Hincapie - USA
Egoi Martinez - ESP
Benjamin Noval - ESP
Pavel Padrnos - CZE
Yaroslav Popovych - UKR
Chechu Rubiera - ESP
Paolo Savoldelli - ITA

If you look at the Discovery/Postal teams over the past 8 years, the number of Americans going to the TdF have gotten fewer and fewer:

1999 - 7
2000 - 5
2001 - 4
2002 - 3
2003 - 3
2004 - 3
2005 - 2
2006 - 1

Granted, the Postal/Discovery organization has been the launch pad for several American cyclists who have since moved on to become members of other European cycling teams such as Floyd, Levi, Tyler, Vandevelde, Kevin Livingston and Jonathan Vaughters, thus decreasing our American numbers. But if CSC (who is the odds on favorite to win this years TdF) is able to field a team that is 33% American, why wouldn't Team Discovery be able to do the same?

Even if we look at domestic races, I didn't see any Discovery riders in Philly for the Commerce Bank Triple Crown... but CSC was there.

I'm still going to be following and even cheering for the Disco boys this July, regardless if the team leader is Hincapie, Acevedo or Popovych. But I'm also going to start viewing CSC as my home team as well!

Related TRIVIA
As mentioned, The Postal Service Team sent 7 Americans to the 1999 TdF. They were:

Lance Armstrong
Frankie Andreu
Tyler Hamilton
George Hincapie
Kevin Livingston
Christian Vandevelde
Jonathan Vaughters

So who were the other two roster spots filled by, and what country were they from?