U.S. Postal, soon to be Discovery Cycling, has signed Yaroslav Popovych to a 3 year contract beginning next season. The 24 year old is a future grand tour contender. Guillaume had told us that this move was rumored to be near, and Oleg, a fellow Russian, was excited at the possibility.
All the major cycling teams will need to beef up their rosters because of the new rules going into effect that will limit teams in the Tour de France to those who compete at all three grand tours. Since Lance will likely focus his efforts on only one of them (and bring lots of the teams' strongest cyclists with him), Discovery will need strong cyclists to contend in the other two tours. Popovych can race either the Tour or the Giro, whichever Lance turns down.