Discovery Channel Housecleaning

Jose Azevedo.
Gone.
Manuel Beltran.
Gone.
Paolo Savoldelli.
Gone.
Viatcheslav Ekimov.
Gone.
Benoit Joachim.
Gone.
Michael Barry, Roger Hammond, Leif Hoste, Gennady Mikhaylov, Jurgen Van Den Broeck, Max Van Heeswijk.
Gone, gone, gone, gone, gone and gone.
Eleven Discovery Channel riders who helped Our Boy Lance win one or more of his seven-consecutive Tour de France titles have all either been released or are leaving the team.
Who's staying?
Well, George Hincapie for one, long considered Armstrong's key teammate.
Inquiring minds want to know why.
Why do you think there has been such a overwhelming housekeeping, eh Lance?
"After the retirement of Lance in 2005 it was natural for our team to begin making changes," Discovery Channel manager Johan Bruyneel said Thursday. "The team was built around Lance for seven years and as we move out of the Lance era we are now looking at new objectives in addition to the Tour de France.
"It is natural that we will make changes and that some riders will also look to make a change. I am very confident that we will continue to win big races in 2007 with our new roster."
So, who's still around besides Hincapie?
Tom Danielson is still around.
So is Yaroslav Popovich.
And Jose Luis Ribiera, Jason McCartney, Pavel Padrnos, Benjamin Noval, Egoi Martinez, Vladimir Gusev and Fumiyuki Beppu.
Yup, Fumiyuki Beppu!
So, who's coming?
Well, there's Levi Leipheimer, of course.
And Uros Murn of Slovenia from Phonak (he won two stages of the Vuelta) and Gianni Meersman of Belgium are joining the team.
Ekimov, by the way, retired but will stay at Discovery as a deputy to Bruyneel.