Discovery Channel Goes Green on Tour de France

The famous Discovery Channel "blue train" will be wearing green uniforms instead of their usual blue during the Tour, which starts in London on Saturday, and have announced that they plan to become "carbon neutral".

While cycling is an environmentally friendly way of traveling, Discovery Channel intend to offset the carbon emissions from the cars they use during races by planting trees in the Mendocino Forest near team leader Levi Leipheimer's home in California.

"I'm definitely 100 percent behind it. I really believe in it," American Leipheimer told reporters at a news conference on Thursday.

"I'm out on my bike every day so I'm out there in nature and I really see the importance of trying to preserve it and I'm really proud of the fact that the team has started this environmental awareness campaign."

The team will also pledge to plant 30 trees each time a Discovery Channel rider wins a stage or wears a classification jersey during the race.

Seven-times champion Lance Armstrong used to send his Discovery Channel team-mates to the front of the peloton at the end of stages, and it became known as the "blue train".