So, you may not like the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team, what with their cocky attitude when Lance Armstrong was around and now having signed Ivan Basso. You can't really challenge their attitude when you consider they rode the front for seven Tour de Frances in a row, pulling in breakaways and generally controlling the field.

Johan Bruyneel, quite frankly, knew what he was doing when he signed up Basso and we will see in a few months whether his investment pays off. Basso was seen as Armstrong's successor at the top of the podium and he had been cleared to race by the Italian Federation, so nothing illegal there.

Last year the team struggled with no clear leader and really no rider strong enough to truly contend in the stage races. Sure, George Hincapie took the yellow jersey for a couple days in the Tour de France but Hincapie is a classics man and not really a leader in the mountains. On a more positive note, Hincapie looked like he was going strong in the Paris-Roubaix but then bad luck struck and his steerer tube snapped.

There was some expectation that Yaroslav Popovych would do something after winning the Best Young Rider jersey in 2005, but Popovych was disappointing and really didn’t do much. Jose Azevedo was the team’s best-placed rider at 19th, 38 minutes back. The best performance Discovery mustered up was Tom Danielson’s top-ten finish in the Vuelta Espana.

Thankfully, the post-Armstrong chaos has calmed down and Bruyneel has signed a gaggle of stage race stars to supplement Danielson, Hincapie and the others. Already we have seen the team rally around two of these new recruits. The team first showed signs of its old prowess for the hometown boy in the Tour of California supporting Levi Leipheimer all week long. They pulled in many a dangerous O’Grady/Voigt breakaway and rode strong through the mountains.

Even better, they have really spiced up the racing in Europe, going on the attack in Paris-Nice, taking three stages in all by virtue of solo breakaways from Popovych (1) and Alberto Contador (2). Contador ended up winning the overall in Nice after nearly the whole team decimated the field with a furious tempo in the final stage before Contador went on the attack to take his second solo stage win.