1.
Lance Armstrong
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Lance Edward Armstrong is an American former professional road racing cyclist. At age 16, Armstrong began competing as a triathlete and was a national sprint-course triathlon champion in 1989 and 1990, in 1992, Armstrong began his career as a professional cyclist with the Motorola team. In 1996, he was diagnosed with a fatal metastatic testicular cancer. After his recovery, he founded the Lance Armstrong Foundation to assist other cancer survivors. Returning to cycling in 1998, he was a member of the US Postal/Discovery team between 1998 and 2005, when he won his Tour de France titles, as well as a medal in the 2000 Summer Olympics. Between 2010 and 2011, he raced with Team Radio Shack and he retired for a second time in 2011. Armstrong had been the subject of doping allegations ever since winning the 1999 Tour de France, Armstrong chose not to contest the charges, citing the potential toll on his family. As a result, he received a ban from all sports that follow the World Anti-Doping Agency code—effectively ending his athletic career. He was also stripped of all of his achievements after 1998, the Union Cycliste Internationale upheld USADAs decision and decided that his stripped wins would not be allocated to other riders. Armstrong chose not to appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, in a 2013 interview, Armstrong confessed that some of the allegations were true. He has declined to testify about the extent of his use of the drugs. His great-grandfather was the son of Norwegian immigrants and he was named after Lance Rentzel, a Dallas Cowboys wide receiver. His parents divorced in 1973 when Lance was two, the next year, his mother married Terry Keith Armstrong, a wholesale salesman, who adopted Lance that year. At the age of 12, Armstrong started his career as a swimmer at the City of Plano Swim Club and finished fourth in Texas state 1. He stopped swimming-only races after seeing a poster for a triathlon, called the Iron Kids Triathlon. Armstrongs total points in 1987 as an amateur were better than those of five professionals ranked higher than he was that year, at 16, Lance Armstrong became a professional triathlete and became national sprint-course triathlon champion in 1989 and 1990 at 18 and 19, respectively. In 1992 Armstrong turned professional with the Motorola Cycling Team, the successor of 7-Eleven team, in 1993, Armstrong won 10 one-day events and stage races, but his breakthrough victory was the World Road Race Championship held in Norway. Before his World Championships win, he took his first win at the Tour de France and he was 97th in the general classification when he retired after stage 12
2.
Ivan Basso
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Ivan Basso is an Italian former professional road bicycle racer who last raced with UCI ProTeam Tinkoff–Saxo. Basso, nicknamed Ivan the Terrible, was considered among the best mountain riders in the field in the early 21st century. He is a winner of the Giro dItalia, having won the 2006 edition. However, in 2007 Basso admitted he was planning to use doping and was suspended for two years. His suspension ended on 24 October 2008, and he returned to racing two days later in the Japan Cup, where he placed a third behind Damiano Cunego. He later returned to racing in his tour, and in 2010 he won his second Giro dItalia while riding for Liquagis-Domo. He was born in Gallarate, in the province of Varese in Lombardy, there he grew up next door to Claudio Chiappucci, a former three-time stage winner in the Tour de France who was suspended for two years after being proven guilty of doping several times. As an amateur, he finished second in the 1995 junior World Championships, before Basso could turn professional, his parents wanted to see him finish his Technical Geometry studies. He turned professional with Davide Boifavas Riso Scotti-Vinavil team in 1999 and he did not finish the three-week race, but he made it a priority to win it some day. In 2000, with the now called Amica Chips-Tacconi Sport. In 2001, he moved to Fassa Bortolo under the guidance of sporting director Giancarlo Ferretti and he scored several notable victories in 2001, and he made his Tour de France debut in the 2001 edition. His attack on the Bastille Day stage prompted a five-man break-away which rode for the victory and his next two years were devoid of significant wins, even though he had promising rides in the Tour de France. In the 2002 edition of the Tour de France, Basso finished 11th overall and won the white jersey, after the promising start to his Fassa Bortolo career, Bassos relationship with Ferretti turned sour. Basso failed to respond well to the management methods of the sergeant who thought Basso did not win enough races. Apart from the time trial stages, Basso had only lost around a single minute to winner Lance Armstrong in the 2003 Tour. Despite strong rumors sending him to team U. S. Postal Service, Ivan Basso moved to Team CSC for the 2004 season, under guidance of team manager Bjarne Riis. At Team CSC, Basso was to fill the role as team captain, the time trial skill of Ivan Basso was one of the main points of improvements over the next years. Basso looked impressive in the 2004 Tour de France, winning stage 12 ahead of eventual winner Lance Armstrong, in all, he lost a combined 5 minutes and 13 seconds in the two stages
3.
Tinkoff
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Tinkoff was a Russian-registered professional cycling team from Russia. It competed in the UCI World Tour, the team was owned by Russian Oleg Tinkov and, from 1999 until March 2015, was managed by former Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis. The team was sponsored by the Russian Tinkoff Bank, a credit systems company, founded in 1998 as home-Jack & Jones, the team started in cyclings second division. In 2000 it moved into the top division, now known as the UCI World Tour, since 2000, under differing sponsor names, the team rode the Tour de France. It has won the classification in all three of the Grand Tours. In addition, the team has won many classics, including 6 Monuments. The team won the UCI ProTours team classification each year from 2005 through 2007, in March 2015 the team confirmed that Riis had been removed from active duty due to differences between Riis and Tinkov. His departure from the team was announced on 29 March. When Bjarne Riis took over in winter 2000, he hired the former Danish Ranger Corps soldier B. S. Christiansen as advisor and they gave CSC a distinct philosophy and training methods. The team works with four values, communication, loyalty, commitment and respect, the team rides for the rider in the best shape on the day, and separates the function of team captain and team leader to avoid pressure on a single rider. The team staff go on outdoor education trips, physical challenges under pressure. According to B. S. Christiansen, the camps teach people that they can achieve their goals by cooperating and they have to perform their very best under the worst possible circumstances, where every action has a consequence. Bobby Julich, one of the riders, said that those days in the bush bonded us much closer and given us the strategies to work as a team in any racing situation. The team was built on the license of Danish amateur team Herning CK, with headquarters in Herning, Denmark. The team was assembled for 1998 with Alex Pedersen and Torben Kølbæk as sports directors, the main sponsors were a Danish real estate agency, and a clothes manufacturer and the budget was around €1,000,000 for 1998, including secondary sponsors. The team rode its first season in 2nd Division races, holm quit the team in April 1998. He sold his stock in Professional Cycling Denmark, the team finished 32nd best of 1998, and with an increased budget of €2,400,000 combined, the number of riders was increased to 14, with riders of a higher standard. In terms of races won,1999 was the most successful season until 2005, for 2000, Memory Card A/S, a Danish producer of memory cards, stepped in as co-sponsor and Danish cyclist Bo Hamburger was brought in as captain
4.
Jan Ullrich
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Jan Ullrich, born 2 December 1973) is a German former professional road bicycle racer. Ullrich won gold and silver medals in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and he won the 1999 Vuelta a España and the HEW Cyclassics in front of a home crowd in Hamburg in 1997. He had podium finishes in the hilly classic Clásica de San Sebastián and his victorious ride in the 1997 Tour de France led to a bicycle boom in Germany. In 2006, Ullrich was barred from the Tour de France amid speculation of having doped, in February 2012, Ullrich was found guilty of a doping offence by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. He was retroactively banned from 22 August 2011, and all results gained since May 2005 were removed from his Palmarès and he admitted to blood doping in 2013. Ullrich won his first bicycle race at the age of nine and he was educated in the sports training system of the German Democratic Republic attending the KJS sports school in Berlin in 1986. In 1988, he was champion of the German Democratic Republic, the school closed two years after the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989. He, his trainer Peter Sager, and teammates joined a club in Hamburg until 1994. In 1991, he was 5th in the amateur world championships. In 1993, aged 19, at the Hamburg club, Ullrich won the Cycling World Amateur Road Championship in Oslo, in 1994 Ullrich turned professional for the Telekom team under Walter Godefroot. He finished third behind Chris Boardman and Andrea Chiurato in the time trial championship in Sicily. Ullrich was inconspicuous in his first 18 months as a professional, in 1995 he became national time trial champion. He also achieved top ten placings on stages of the 1995 Tour de Suisse, at 21 he wanted to start the 1995 Tour de France but Godefroot thought it was early. Instead he went to the small German stage race, the Hofbrau Cup, Ullrich started the Vuelta later that year only to abandon on stage 12. Ullrich gave up a place in the 1996 German Olympic team to ride his first Tour and he finished the prologue 33 seconds down. He stayed within the top 20 until the mountains on stage 7 when Miguel Indurain cracked, Ullrich finished 30 seconds back,22 behind his teammate Bjarne Riis while Indurain finished four minutes down. On the following stage, he finished in the group as Indurain 40 seconds behind Riis. On stage 9, Riis rode into the yellow jersey while Ullrich finished 44 seconds back, over the final mountains, Ullrich rode into second place behind Riis, but he conceded time on each mountain stage, eventually being nearly four minutes behind Riis
5.
Thor Hushovd
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Thor Hushovd is a Norwegian former professional road bicycle racer. He is known for sprinting and time trialing, Hushovd is a three-time Norwegian national road race champion and he was the first Norwegian to lead the Tour de France, and first Scandinavian to win the road race in cycling world road championship. He is also the Scandinavian with the most stage wins in Grand Tours and he is widely considered the greatest Norwegian cyclist of all time. Born in Grimstad, Aust-Agder, Norway, Hushovd won the time trial world championship. He was Norwegian time trial champion in 2004 and 2005 and road race champion in 2004 and 2010, in 2006, he won seven UCI ProTour races and two stages of the Tour de France. He won the prologue in Strasbourg and led after the first day despite a cut arm and he continued with stitches and regained the yellow jersey after stage 2 with a third place. He won the last stage, beating Robbie McEwen in a sprint, in the 2006 Vuelta a España he won stage 6, wore the golden jersey for three stages and won the points classification At the 2008 Tour de France, Hushovd won stage 2 in a bunch finish. In 2009, Hushovd rode for the Cervélo TestTeam and he took one of the teams first victories of the season by winning Stage 3 of the Tour of California. At the Tour de France, he won green jersey for the classification for the second time. Typically the sprinter with the most stage wins the points classification, though Hushovd only won one stage, stage 6. After a controversy on stage 14, where Cavendish was relegated to the back of the peloton for impeding Hushovd, Hushovd attacked alone on stage 17, a mountain stage, winning two intermediate sprints. Hushovd won stage 3 at the Tour of Missouri –114 mi over rolling hills – in September 2009, on 9 May 2010, Hushovd broke his collarbone on a training ride after colliding with a young girl. At the Tour de France, Hushovd won the third stage and he prevailed in the sprint involving five other riders. That victory netted him the Green jersey, but he ultimately lost it to Alessandro Petacchi of the Lampre–Farnese Vini team, on 3 October 2010, Hushovd won the road world championship, which started in Melbourne and finished in Geelong, Australia. He was the first Norwegian to win the rainbow jersey, veloNews said, Hushovd. dominated a bunch sprint at the end of a thrilling 267km race, beating Denmark’s Matti Breschel and Australia’s Allan Davis. The favorite, Philippe Gilbert, was caught with three kilometers to go, in 2012, Hushovd joined BMC Racing Team on a three-year contract. Suffering from an unknown medical condition, he had to abandon the Giro dItalia and cancelled his scheduled participation to the Tour de France. The medical impairment was later identified as a virus and muscle inflammation by team doctors, Hushovd hardly achieved any notable result in the season except fourteenth at Paris-Roubaix
6.
Michael Rasmussen
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Michael Rasmussen is a retired Danish professional bicycle racer, who competed in road racing and mountain biking. His most notable victories include four stages of the Tour de France, one stage of the Vuelta a España and he also won the best climber classification in the 2005 and 2006 Tour de France. His nickname in Danish is Kyllingen, originating from his period as a mountain biker when teammates were watching the Danish childrens TV show Bamses Billedbog, about a bear, a large team mechanic was nicknamed Bear, and so Rasmussen was dubbed The Chicken. Specializing in climbing, Rasmussen showed a propensity for attempting spectacular wins in stages in which he broke away from the peloton early. Michael Rasmussen was known for his care for detail when considering weight, with a low weight he was usually one of the lightest riders in his class. He was known for peeling off unnecessary stickers from his bike, not wearing the Livestrong wristband which was common among many Tour de France riders and he used to count each grain of rice before eating and had water with his breakfast cereal, instead of milk. He only carried one water bottle holder and his Colnago Extreme-C bike weighed 6.81 kg, only 10 g more than the minimum limit. In the 2007 Tour de France, Rasmussen, while wearing the yellow jersey and he served a two-year ban from July 2007 to July 2009 for lying about his whereabouts. Rasmussen began his career as a biker, and he won the Mountain Bike World Championships in 1999 before becoming a stagiaire with the professional cycling team CSC–Tiscali in 2001. There he secured a contract for 2002, and following a string of good results in August and September, including his first professional win. After being sacked by Rabobank in the 2007 Tour de France, the teams manager then decided that the move would be too expensive and thus Rasmussen was without contract. His first Tour de France was in 2004, in which he failed to get any stage wins but was third in the mountain classification, Rasmussen then agreed with his team that he could train alone and focus on the Tour de France for 2005. At the 2005 Tour de France his training paid off when he took the polka dot jersey on stage eight. The next day he won stage nine after riding alone for three-quarters of the course, he had broken away after 3 km and he led over the first category 1 climb, the Ballon dAlsace. In the penultimate stage, a time trial, he lost his third place after a fall at 4 km. After his first fall, he lost confidence and his ability to descend at speed, Rasmussen finished 77th that day and dropped from 3rd to 7th on the GC. However he needed only to finish the stage the next day to assure his status as King of the Mountains. Rasmussen rode the next day alone, saying he needed to clear his mind after the day before
7.
Yaroslav Popovych
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Yaroslav Popovych is a retired Ukrainian cyclist. From 2012 until 2016 he rode with the UCI ProTour team Trek–Segafredo and he was born in Drohobych, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union. Under-23 road race champion in 2001, Popovych turned professional in 2002 with Landbouwkrediet–Colnago, upon joining Discovery Channel in 2005, his focus switched to the Tour de France, where he won the young riders classification in 2005 and won stage 12 in 2006. When Discovery Channel folded at the end of 2007, Popovych moved to Silence–Lotto in 2008, Popovych also raced for Team RadioShack in 2010 and 2011. He was considered one of the most promising cyclists while riding in junior and he won the Under-23 Mens road race in the 2001 UCI Road World Championships after finishing second the previous year. He also won the Paris–Roubaix edition for under-23 riders and palio del recioto and he joined the Discovery Channel in 2005 and he was considered as a possible successor to Lance Armstrong as team leader. In this same year, Popovych took one of his best victory by winning the Volta a Catalunya, in the 2006 Tour de France, Popovych was considered one of the Discovery Channel teams four leaders, along with José Azevedo, Paolo Savoldelli and George Hincapie. During 2006 season he won stages at the Vuelta a Castilla y León and Tour de Georgia. Popovych mainly worked as a domestique during 2007 season, aiding Alberto Contador to win Paris–Nice, early in the season, he won the fifth stage in the 2007 Paris–Nice after attacking 33 kilometers from the finishing line. He was considered as the leader for 2007 Giro dItalia. In the 2007 Tour de France, he finished eighth while working for Discovery Channel team-mates Alberto Contador, in 2008, Popovych moved to Silence–Lotto squad after Discovery Channel announced that it would cease operations at the end of 2007. At the end of the year, it was announced he would team up with his former Discover manager Johan Bruyneel again in 2009, joining the new Astana Team. In 2009, Popovych and Lance Armstrong joined the Kazakh-based cycling squad Astana, Popovych acted as a domestique for Alberto Contador in Paris–Nice, finishing 23rd himself. On 15 October 2009 it was reported that Popovych will move to Team RadioShack for the 2010 season, in 2010 Popovych followed many former Astana riders to the newly created American based squad Team RadioShack. In January 2011 Popovych was incriminated in the Floyd Landis doping allegations against U. S, later that day Popovych denied the allegations. The 2012 USADA Report later tied him directly to going to training camps set up by Ferrari, dNF=Did not finish Yaroslav Popovych at Trap-Friis. dk. Archive copy at the Wayback Machine Profile from Tour de France 2007
8.
U.S. Postal Service Pro Cycling Team
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U. S. Postal Service Pro Cycling Team was a United States-based professional road bicycle racing team. As part of the deal, Lance Armstrong, the teams undisputed leader. The team was directed by Belgian Johan Bruyneel, who also managed U. S. Postal, the chief mechanic was Julien DeVries. The team was co-owned by Tailwind Sports Corp. of San Francisco and Capital Sports & Entertainment of Austin, on February 10,2007, Discovery Channel announced that it would not renew its sponsorship of the team at the end of the 2007 season. On August 10,2007 the cycling team announced that it would not search for a new sponsor, in October 2012 USADA released a report saying that the team had run the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme the sport has ever seen. They also implicated seven-time Tour winner Armstrong, on October 22,2012 the UCI upheld the USADAs recommendation to strip Armstrong of all results since August 1,1998, and ban him from cycling for life. On August 10,2007, Tailwind Sports announced the end of the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team, Tailwind officials stopped their search for a new title sponsor for the Discovery team, citing the current tumultuous conditions within the sport of cycling. Team operations continued until the end of the 2007 season, after the 2007 season Johan Bruyneel went to rebuild Team Astana for the 2008 season. He brought with him much of Discoverys personnel, such as riders Alberto Contador, Levi Leipheimer, Yaroslav Popovych, Tomas Vaitkus, and coach Sean Yates. The 2007 U. S. national road champion George Hincapie signed a contract for the 2008 season Team High Road, later known as Team HTC-Columbia, ages are from August 10,2007. The US Postal Service Pro Cycling Team and later named the US Postal Service Pro Cycling Team presented by Berry Floor operated from 1996 through 2004, the United States Postal Service was the title sponsor from 1996 through 2004 and the team was nicknamed the Blue Train. Berry Floor, a Belgian flooring company, was the secondary sponsor, domestically the USPS Pro Cycling Team was presented by Alloc, the American subsidiary of Berry Floor. Lance Armstrong won six Tours de France with US Postal, Armstrong went on to win a seventh Tour de France in 2005, after the USPS contract and sponsorship ended. The US Postal Service announced that it would cease sponsorship at the end of the 2004 racing season when its contract expired. It had previously been under fire for the expenditure from organizations such as Postal Watch, legitimate problems of mismanagement and sloppy accounting were pointed out by the Postal Service itself, via the USPS Office of the Inspector General. Before the expiration of the USPS contract, Armstrong insisted that he would continue to ride with the USPS team structure. This demand was met on June 15,2004 when Discovery Networks stepped in, with the help of Thomas Weisel and Eddie Borysewicz, the United States Postal Service begins its reign as title sponsor to what has become the most successful cycling team from the United States. Borysewicz served as the directeur sportif and the team raced mainly in domestic events in the United States
9.
Phonak (cycling team)
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Phonak was a Swiss professional cycling team from 2000 until 2006. The team was one of 20 teams in the first UCI ProTour in 2005 and it won one race - Santiago Boteros victory in the Tour de Romandie - and came second in the team ranking on the 2005 ProTour circuit. A sponsor, iShares signed a contract in June 2006 to become the teams title sponsor from 2007. The teams name was to be iShares, during 2004 Phonak concentrated on supporting Tyler Hamilton in the Tour de France. He crashed and withdrew and was suspended for blood doping. Hamilton was not the last rider removed for doping, leading Phonak to stop sponsorship after 2006, the riders accused of doping in 2004 were Hamilton, Santiago Pérez, Oscar Camenzind, Fabrizio Guidi and Sascha Urweider. His 2006 Tour de France win was disallowed by the Union Cycliste Internationale on September 20,2007
10.
2004 Tour de France
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The 2004 Tour de France was a multiple stage bicycle race held from 3 to 25 July, and the 91st edition of the Tour de France. The event consisted of 20 stages over 3,391 km, Armstrong had been favored to win, his competitors seen as being German Jan Ullrich, Spaniards Roberto Heras and Iban Mayo, and fellow Americans Levi Leipheimer and Tyler Hamilton. This Tour saw the mistreatment of Filippo Simeoni by Armstrong on Stage 18, Armstrong also made a zip-the-lips gesture on camera, apparently referencing Simeoni. The route of the 2004 Tour was remarkable, with two individual time trials scheduled in the last week, one of them the climb of Alpe dHuez, the directors were hoping for a close race until the end. For the first time in years, the mountains of the Massif Central made an appearance, the first 14 teams in the UCI Road World Rankings at 31 January 2004 were automatically invited. The book L. A. Confidentiel, by David Walsh and Pierre Ballester, came out shortly before the 2004 Tour, Lance Armstrong and his lawyers asked for an emergency hearing in French court to insert a denial into the book. The French judge denied this request, Armstrong also launched defamation suits against the publisher and the authors, as well as magazine LExpress and UK newspaper The Sunday Times which both referenced it. On 22 October 2012, the Union Cycliste Internationale endorsed the USADA sanctions, list of doping cases in cycling Official website at the Wayback Machine 2004 Tour de France at Cyclingnews. com
11.
2006 Tour de France
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The 2006 Tour de France was the 93rd edition of the Tour de France, one of cyclings Grand Tours. It took between 1 July to 23 July and it was won by Óscar Pereiro following the disqualification of apparent winner Floyd Landis. The Tour began with a prologue in Strasbourg, on the French-German border, the distance of the course was 3,657 km. The race was the third fastest in average speed, along the way, the cyclists passed through six different countries including France, The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and Spain. The presentation of the course was made by the new director of Le Tour, for the first time since the 1999 edition, there was no team time trial. The event, as some of the Tours of the late 1990s, was marred by doping scandals. Prior to the tour, numerous riders – including the two favourites Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso – were expelled from the Tour due to their link with the Operación Puerto doping case. After the Tour, the apparent winner, Floyd Landis, was found to have failed a drug test after stage 17, Landis contested the result and demanded arbitration. On September 20,2007, Landis was found guilty and suspended retroactive to January 30,2007, Landis appealed the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport which upheld the ban. In the most controversial scandal since the 1998 tour, thirteen riders were expelled from the tour on the eve of Strasbourg prologue to the 93rd edition stemming from a Spanish doping scandal. Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso, two favourites to win the race, were among those excluded from the Tour along with podium candidate Francisco Mancebo and Alberto Contador. Because of this and the retirement of then-seven-time consecutive winner Lance Armstrong and it was also the first Tour since 1999 that did not contain a past champion. However, both Ullrich and Basso were suspended by their teams on June 30 after UCI told T-Mobile, Francisco Mancebo of the French team AG2R Prévoyance, who finished fourth last year and sixth the year before, was also suspended by his team, and subsequently announced his retirement. Alexander Vinokourov would have been the only returning rider with a finish from last years race. However, his team, Astana–Würth, was forced to out of the race because they would not be able to start with the minimum of six riders. As a result of the scandal, many believed Spaniard Alejandro Valverde, or the Americans Floyd Landis, Levi Leipheimer. American Floyd Landis was initially awarded the victory in the closest three-way finish in the history to date. Floyds final time was 89h 3930, but the following day, during Stage 17, Landis set a very high pace on the first climb of the day that no other rider could match
12.
Tour de France
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The Tour de France is an annual multiple stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally making passes through nearby countries. The race was first organized in 1903 to increase sales for the newspaper LAuto, the race has been held annually since its first edition in 1903 except when it was stopped for the two World Wars. As the Tour gained prominence and popularity the race was lengthened, participation expanded from a primarily French field, as riders from all over the world began to participate in the race each year. The Tour is a UCI World Tour event, which means that the teams compete in the race are mostly UCI WorldTeams. Traditionally, the race is primarily in the month of July. The modern editions of the Tour de France consist of 21 day-long segments over a 23-day period, the race alternates between clockwise and counterclockwise circuits of France. The number of teams usually varies between 20 and 22, with nine riders in each, all of the stages are timed to the finish, the riders times are compounded with their previous stage times. The rider with the lowest aggregate time is the leader of the race, gaining a stage win is also a hotly contested competition, fought for by a specialist cycling sprinter on each team. The Tour de France was created in 1903, the roots of the Tour de France trace back to the emergence of two rival sports newspapers in the country. On the one hand was Le Vélo, the first and the largest daily newspaper in France which sold 80,000 copies a day. On the other was LAuto, which had been set-up by journalists and business-people including Comte Jules-Albert de Dion, Adolphe Clément, the new newspaper appointed Henri Desgrange as the editor. He was a prominent cyclist and owner with Victor Goddet of the velodrome at the Parc des Princes, De Dion knew him through his cycling reputation, through the books and cycling articles that he had written, and through press articles he had written for the Clément tyre company. LAuto was not the success its backers wanted, stagnating sales lower than the rival it was intended to surpass led to a crisis meeting on 20 November 1902 on the middle floor of LAutos office at 10 Rue du Faubourg Montmartre, Paris. The last to speak was the most junior there, the chief cycling journalist, Desgrange had poached him from Giffards paper. Lefèvre suggested a six-day race of the sort popular on the track, long-distance cycle races were a popular means to sell more newspapers, but nothing of the length that Lefèvre suggested had been attempted. If it succeeded, it would help LAuto match its rival and it could, as Desgrange said, nail Giffards beak shut. Desgrange and Lefèvre discussed it after lunch, Desgrange was doubtful but the papers financial director, Victor Goddet, was enthusiastic. He handed Desgrange the keys to the safe and said
13.
United States Anti-Doping Agency
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The United States Anti-Doping Agency is a non-profit, non-governmental organization and the national anti-doping organization for the United States. To protect clean competition and the integrity of sport, USADA provides education, leads scientific initiatives, conducts testing, in 2001, USADA was recognized by the U. S. Congress as the official anti-doping agency for Olympic, Pan American and Paralympic sport in the United States. In October 1999, the USOC launched USADA and operations were set to begin in October 2000, one of the major adjustments made to the Code by USADA included reducing the standard of proof required in doping-related adjudication. Before modifications, the standard of proof was equal to that required in a United States court of law, after modification, USADA reduced the standard required to establish a doping violation to comfortable satisfaction of a hearing body. Despite its name and status as the countrys official anti-doping organization, USADA is a private organization, USADA is responsible for implementation of the World Anti-Doping Code in the United States. The Code is the document that harmonizes anti-doping policies, rules. The International Olympic Committee required that all Olympic sports adopt the World Anti-Doping Code prior to August 13,2004, while the WADA Code has been accepted by numerous sport organizations, leagues, and federations around the world, the overwhelming majority of U. S. The USADA Protocol for Olympic and Paralympic Movement Testing outlines the organizations testing program and is consistent with the WADA Code, USADA collects both blood and urine samples during in-competition and out-of-competition tests, which can occur at any time, at any location, and without advance notice. Comprehensive, no-notice testing programs like USADAs that are consistent with the WADA Code have often referred to as Olympic style drug testing. USADA does testing for International Federations, other National Anti-Doping Organizations, USADA does not test at the Olympic Games. The Local Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games and WADA oversee testing at the Games, USADA maintains a group of elite athletes as part of its registered testing pool. USADA determines its test distribution plan or the determination of who, when, even though testing may be described as random, the term random is inaccurate, as USADA uses various factors to strategically plan when and where they test athletes. High-profile or elite athletes are tested significantly more frequently than others, USADAs sample collection process is also consistent with the WADA IST and tests are conducted by doping control officers, who are employed and extensively trained by USADA. For tests in blood is collected, USADA contracts trained phlebotomists who work in conjunction with a USADA DCO. In accordance with the WADA International Standard for Laboratories, all samples are analyzed at laboratories that have been accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency, WADA accredited labs comply with the WADA International Standard for Laboratories. This independent results management process removes the inherent conflict of interest associated with sport organizations trying to promote and police their sports. Athletes can either accept or challenge the sanction through a legal process. In the United States, athletes can take a case before an arbitration panel, USADA maintains a list of all sanctioned athletes on its website
14.
1999 Tour de France
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The 1999 Tour de France was a multiple stage bicycle race held from 3 to 25 July, and the 86th edition of the Tour de France. There were no French stage winners for the first time since the 1926 Tour de France. Virenques team Polti then appealed at the UCI against this decision, each team was allowed to field nine cyclists. The teams entering the race were, Qualified teams Invited teams This tour also saw the mistreatment of Christophe Bassons by his fellow riders of the peloton for speaking out against doping, the 1998 tour had been marred by the Festina doping scandal. Bassons later told Bicycling, The 1999 Tour was supposed to be the Tour of Renewal and he quit the tour without finishing after cracking mentally due to his treatment by the peloton, especially in stage 10. On 22 October 2012, the Union Cycliste Internationale endorsed the USADA sanctions, the 1999 edition of Tour de France had two bizarre moments. The first was on stage 2 when a 25 rider pile-up occurred at Passage du Gois, Passage du Gois is a two-mile causeway which depending on the tide can be under water. The second bizarre incident was on stage 10, one kilometre from the summit of Alpe dHuez, leading Italian rider Giuseppe Guerini was confronted by a spectator holding a camera in the middle of the road. Guerini hit the spectator but recovered and went on to win the stage, there were several classifications in the 1999 Tour de France. The most important was the classification, calculated by adding each cyclists finishing times on each stage. The cyclist with the least accumulated time was the leader, identified by the yellow jersey. Additionally, there was a classification, which awarded a green jersey. In the points classification, cyclists got points for finishing among the best in a stage finish, the cyclist with the most points led the classification, and was identified with a green jersey. There was also a mountains classification, the cyclist with the most points lead the classification, and was identified with a polkadot jersey. The fourth individual classification was the young rider classification, which was not marked by a jersey and this was decided the same way as the general classification, but only riders under 26 years were eligible. For the team classification, the times of the best three cyclists per team on stage were added, the leading team was the team with the lowest total time. The riders in the team that led this classification wore yellow caps, for the combativity award classification, a jury gave points after each stage to the cyclists they considered most combative. The cyclist with the most votes in all stages lead the classification, lance Armstrong and the 1999 Tour de France
15.
Union Cycliste Internationale
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The Union Cycliste Internationale, commonly known by the acronym UCI, is the world governing body for sports cycling and oversees international competitive cycling events. The UCI is based in Aigle, Switzerland, the UCI issues racing licenses to riders and enforces disciplinary rules, such as in matters of doping. It also oversees the World Championships, UCI was founded in 1900 in Paris by the national cycling sports organisations of Belgium, the United States, France, Italy, and Switzerland. Britain found itself outflanked and it was not able to join the UCI – under the conditions the UCI had imposed – until 1903, there were originally 30 countries affiliated to the union. They did not have voting power and some had no vote at all. Votes were distributed by the number of tracks, or velodromes, France had 18 votes, the highest number, and Germany and Italy 14 each. Britain had eight, a number the writer Bill Mills said was acquired by including many rather doubtful grass tracks, in 1965, under the pressure of the IOC, the UCI created two subsidiary bodies, the International Amateur Cycling Federation and the International Professional Cycling Federation. The UCI assumed a role coordinating both bodies, the FIAC was based in Rome, the FICP in Luxembourg, and the UCI in Geneva. The FIAC was the bigger of the two organisations, with 127 member federations across all five continents and it was dominated by the countries of the Eastern bloc which were amateur. The FIAC arranged representation of cycling at the Olympic Games, in 1992, the UCI reunified the FIAC and FICP, and merged them back into the UCI. The combined organisation then relocated to Aigle, close to the IOC in Lausanne, in 2004, the UCI constructed a 200-metre velodrome at the new World Cycling Centre adjacent to its headquarters. In September 2007 the UCI announced that it had decided to award ProTour status for the first time ever to an event outside of Europe, the announcement followed negotiations between UCI President Pat McQuaid and South Australian Premier Mike Rann. In 2013 Tracey Gaudry became the first woman appointed as president of the UCI. The UCI organises cyclings world championships, administration of which it gives to member nations, the first championships were on the road and on the track. They were allocated originally to member nations in turn, on condition the country was deemed competent, a nation given a championship or series of championships was required to pay the UCI30 per cent of ticket receipts from the track and 10 per cent from the road. Of this, the UCI kept 30 per cent and gave the rest to competing nations in proportion to the number of events in which it competed, the highest gate money in this pre-war era was 600000 francs in Paris in 1903. There were originally five championships, amateur and professional sprint, amateur and professional road race, continental European organisers generally preferred massed races on circuits, fenced throughout or along the finish to charge for entry. The original records were on the track, unpaced, human-paced and they were promoted for three classes of bicycle, solos, tandems and unusual machines such as what are now known as recumbents, on which the rider lies horizontal
16.
Departments of France
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In the administrative divisions of France, the department is one of the three levels of government below the national level, between the administrative regions and the commune. There are 96 departments in metropolitan France and 5 overseas departments, each department is administered by an elected body called a departmental council. From 1800 to April 2015, they were called general councils, the departments were created in 1791 as a rational replacement of Ancien Régime provinces with a view to strengthen national unity, the title department is used to mean a part of a larger whole. Almost all of them were named after geographical features rather than after historical or cultural territories which could have their own loyalties. The earliest known suggestion of it is from 1764 in the writings of dArgenson and they have inspired similar divisions in many countries, some of them former French colonies. Most French departments are assigned a number, the Official Geographical Code. Some overseas departments have a three-digit number, the number is used, for example, in the postal code, and was until recently used for all vehicle registration plates. For example, inhabitants of Loiret might refer to their department as the 45 and this reform project has since been abandoned. The first French territorial departments were proposed in 1665 by Marc-René dArgenson to serve as administrative areas purely for the Ponts et Chaussées infrastructure administration, before the French Revolution, France gained territory gradually through the annexation of a mosaic of independent entities. By the close of the Ancien Régime, it was organised into provinces, during the period of the Revolution, these were dissolved, partly in order to weaken old loyalties. Their boundaries served two purposes, Boundaries were chosen to break up Frances historical regions in an attempt to erase cultural differences, Boundaries were set so that every settlement in the country was within a days ride of the capital of the department. This was a security measure, intended to keep the national territory under close control. This measure was directly inspired by the Great Terror, during which the government had lost control of rural areas far from any centre of government. The old nomenclature was carefully avoided in naming the new departments, most were named after an areas principal river or other physical features. Even Paris was in the department of Seine, the number of departments, initially 83, was increased to 130 by 1809 with the territorial gains of the Republic and of the First French Empire. Following Napoleons defeats in 1814-1815, the Congress of Vienna returned France to its pre-war size, in 1860, France acquired the County of Nice and Savoy, which led to the creation of three new departments. Two were added from the new Savoyard territory, while the department of Alpes-Maritimes was created from Nice, the 89 departments were given numbers based on their alphabetical order. The department of Bas-Rhin and parts of Meurthe, Moselle, Vosges and Haut-Rhin were ceded to the German Empire in 1871, following Frances defeat in the Franco-Prussian War
17.
Alps
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The mountains were formed over tens of millions of years as the African and Eurasian tectonic plates collided. Extreme shortening caused by the event resulted in marine sedimentary rocks rising by thrusting and folding into high mountain peaks such as Mont Blanc, Mont Blanc spans the French–Italian border, and at 4,810 m is the highest mountain in the Alps. The Alpine region area contains about a hundred peaks higher than 4000 metres, the altitude and size of the range affects the climate in Europe, in the mountains precipitation levels vary greatly and climatic conditions consist of distinct zones. Wildlife such as live in the higher peaks to elevations of 3,400 m. Evidence of human habitation in the Alps goes back to the Palaeolithic era, a mummified man, determined to be 5,000 years old, was discovered on a glacier at the Austrian–Italian border in 1991. By the 6th century BC, the Celtic La Tène culture was well established, Hannibal famously crossed the Alps with a herd of elephants, and the Romans had settlements in the region. In 1800 Napoleon crossed one of the passes with an army of 40,000. The 18th and 19th centuries saw an influx of naturalists, writers, in World War II, Adolf Hitler kept a base of operation in the Bavarian Alps throughout the war. The Alpine region has a cultural identity. The Winter Olympic Games have been hosted in the Swiss, French, at present, the region is home to 14 million people and has 120 million annual visitors. The English word Alps derives from the Latin Alpes, maurus Servius Honoratus, an ancient commentator of Virgil, says in his commentary that all high mountains are called Alpes by Celts. The term may be common to Italo-Celtic, because the Celtic languages have terms for high mountains derived from alp and this may be consistent with the theory that in Greek Alpes is a name of non-Indo-European origin. According to the Old English Dictionary, the Latin Alpes might possibly derive from a pre-Indo-European word *alb hill, Albania, a name not native to the region known as the country of Albania, has been used as a name for a number of mountainous areas across Europe. In Roman times, Albania was a name for the eastern Caucasus, in modern languages the term alp, alm, albe or alpe refers to a grazing pastures in the alpine regions below the glaciers, not the peaks. An alp refers to a mountain pasture where cows are taken to be grazed during the summer months and where hay barns can be found. The Alps are a crescent shaped geographic feature of central Europe that ranges in a 800 km arc from east to west and is 200 km in width, the mean height of the mountain peaks is 2.5 km. The range stretches from the Mediterranean Sea north above the Po basin, extending through France from Grenoble, the range continues onward toward Vienna, Austria, and east to the Adriatic Sea and Slovenia. To the south it dips into northern Italy and to the north extends to the border of Bavaria in Germany
18.
Pyrenees
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The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain. For the most part, the main crest forms a divide between France and Spain, with the microstate of Andorra sandwiched in between. The Crown of Aragon and the Kingdom of Navarre have historically extended on both sides of the range, with smaller northern portions now in France and larger southern parts now in Spain. The demonym for the noun Pyrenees in English is Pyrenean, in Greek mythology, Pyrene is a princess who gave her name to the Pyrenees. The Greek historian Herodotus says Pyrene is the name of a town in Celtic Europe, Hercules, characteristically drunk and lustful, violates the sacred code of hospitality and rapes his hosts daughter. Pyrene gives birth to a serpent and runs away to the woods, alone, she pours out her story to the trees, attracting the attention of wild beasts who tear her to pieces. After his victory over Geryon, Hercules passes through the kingdom of Bebryx again, and all the rock-cliffs and wild-beast haunts echo back Pyrene. … The mountains hold on to the name through the ages. Pliny the Elder connects the story of Hercules and Pyrene to Lusitania, the Spanish Pyrenees are part of the following provinces, from east to west, Girona, Barcelona, Lleida, Huesca, Navarra and Gipuzkoa. The French Pyrenees are part of the following départements, from east to west, Pyrénées-Orientales, Aude, Ariège, Haute-Garonne, Hautes-Pyrénées, the independent principality of Andorra is sandwiched in the eastern portion of the mountain range between the Spanish Pyrenees and French Pyrenees. Physiographically, the Pyrenees may be divided into three sections, the Atlantic, the Central, and the Eastern Pyrenees, together, they form a distinct physiographic province of the larger Alpine System division. In the Western Pyrenees, from the Basque mountains near the Bay of Biscay of the Atlantic Ocean, at the eastern end on the southern side lies a distinct area known as the Sub-Pyrenees. On the French side the slopes of the range descend abruptly. The Pyrenees are older than the Alps, their sediments were first deposited in coastal basins during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras, the intense pressure and uplifting of the Earths crust first affected the eastern part and moved progressively to the entire chain, culminating in the Eocene Epoch. The eastern part of the Pyrenees consists largely of granite and gneissose rocks, the massive and unworn character of the chain comes from its abundance of granite, which is particularly resistant to erosion, as well as weak glacial development. Low passes are lacking, and the roads and the railroads between France and Spain run only in the lowlands at the western and eastern ends of the Pyrenees. A notable visual feature of mountain range is La Brèche de Roland, a gap in the ridge line. Coal deposits capable of being profitably worked are situated chiefly on the Spanish slopes, the open pit of Trimoun close to the commune of Luzenac is one of the greatest sources of talc in Europe
19.
UCI ProTour
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The UCI ProTour was a series of road bicycle races in Europe, Australia and Canada organised by the UCI. Created by Hein Verbruggen, former president of the UCI, it comprises a number of ProTour cycling teams, each of whom are required to compete in every round of the series. It was initially the basis of a long competition for rankings points, created for 2005 to replace the UCI Road World Cup series. For 2011, the ProTour and World Ranking were fully merged into the UCI World Tour, ProTour status for teams – relabelled UCI ProTeams – will continue as the highest level of registration, and will carry the right and obligation to participate in all World Tour races. The ProTour licences are given to a maximum of 20 teams, the exception to this rule was the Phonak team, which was given only a two-year licence due to previous doping allegations. Licence holders can apply for each year, which is dependent upon a check on contracts and budgets. After 2005, the Fassa Bortolo and Domina Vacanze teams folded, the Unibet. com Cycling Team received Phonaks ProTour license, and the Swiss-based, Kazakh-backed Astana Team received the license previously owned by Manolo Saiz and his Liberty Seguros-Würth. Unibet. com and Discovery Channel discontinued after the 2007 season, at the end of 2008, another two teams dropped out, Crédit Agricole and Gerolsteiner. Their licenses were taken over by Garmin-Slipstream and Team Katusha, bbox Bouygues Telecom and Cofidis were denied licence renewals for the 2010 season, and new licences were given to Team Sky and Team RadioShack. Although Lampre–Farnese Vini had had its licence renewed until 2013, its registration for 2010 season was temporarily rejected, UCI bylaws were later changed to require a team to be registered before its license is granted or renewed, to avoid a repeat of this situation. Season-long competitions for professional road racing were first instituted in 1948, the ProTour has been criticized for not having a system in place for a timely upgrade and downgrade of teams from/to the lower-tier UCI Continental Circuits. During the 2007 UCI ProTour season, the ASO, RCS and Unipublic, organisers of the Tour de France, Giro dItalia and Vuelta a España respectively, remained at odds with each other. The primary reason was that grand tour organisers wanted more freedom to invite national teams. Failure to achieve agreement lead UCI chairman Pat McQuaid to send a letter in February 2008 to all professional teams urging them to boycott Paris–Nice because it was an outlawed race. In response, the AIGCP announced that the teams had unanimously decided to part in Paris–Nice. Quick Step team manager Patrick Lefevere commented, Im more than fed up all the arguing. ASO and UCI dont know how much damage they are doing to the sport, what am I supposed to tell my sponsors. This conflict has been going on for three years and is escalating all the time, can the teams be certain that they will be able to take part in the Tour de France later in the year
20.
AG2R La Mondiale
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AG2R La Mondiale is a French cycling team with UCI ProTour team status. In 1992 Vincent Lavenu, who had just retired from professional cycling, Lavenu had previously organised sponsorship from Chazal of his last professional team. This sponsor stayed from 1992 to 1995, in 1996 Petit Casino, a chain of coffee shops in supermarkets, took over the sponsorship of the team. At this time the team was a second team that relied on the public to sponsor the team. The team had the saying Petit Casino- c’est votre equipe – it’s your team, in 1997 Casino, the supermarket chain that contained the Petit Casino coffee shops, took over the sponsorship of the team and the budget increased substantially. Lavenu’s team could compete in the big races such as the classics, the team obtained successes with Alexander Vinokourov, Jaan Kirsipuu and Lauri Aus. The insurance company Ag2r Prevoyance took over as the sponsor in 2000. The team obtained successes with Laurent Brochard, Jaan Kirsipuu. In 2006, the joined the UCI ProTour, following the signings of big cycling names Francisco Mancebo. Ag2r obtained success in the 2006 Tour de France with a win by Sylvain Calzati. Nocentini retained the leadership for eight stages, and Ag2r-La Mondiale also led the team classification from stage 7 to stage 11. In 2014, the team had great results at the Tour de France, winning a stage, on September 21,2012, Steve Houanard tested positive for EPO in an out-of-competition test and was provisionally suspended. On May 15,2013, Sylvain Georges tested positive for the banned stimulant Heptaminol, Georges blamed the positive result on the freely available product Ginkor Fort. On May 21 Georges B Sample also tested positive for the stimulant causing the team to remove itself from the 2013 Criterium du Dauphine in accordance with MPCC rules. As a result of the positive Georges was banned by the French Cycling Federation for 6 months, on March 10,2015, the UCI announced that Lloyd Mondory had tested positive for EPO on February 17 in an out of competition test. As a result, Mondory was suspended bearing the outcome of his B sample analysis, ‹See Tfd› Official website Chambery CF
21.
Movistar Team (men's team)
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Movistar Team is a professional road bicycle racing team which participates in the UCI ProTour and has achieved thirteen general classification victories in Grand Tours. The title sponsor is the Spanish mobile telephone company Telefónica, with the team riding under the name of the companys brand Movistar, the team offices are in Egüés, a municipality of Navarre, Spain, in the metropolitan area of Pamplona. A later sponsor was Caisse dEpargne, a French semi-cooperative banking group, having previously used Pinarello bikes, the team rode Canyon frames in 2014, with Campagnolo parts. Since 2008 Eusebio Unzué has been the manager of the team after the long running manager, José Miguel Echavarri, directeurs sportifs of the team include Neil Stephens, Alfonso Galilea and José Luis Jaimerena. The team began in 1980 as the Reynolds team which José Miguel Echavarri as the directeur sportif, in 1982 signed a young Pedro Delgado who acted as a domestique for team leader Ángel Arroyo during the 1982 Vuelta a España. Arroyo won the Vuelta after his team controlled the race after he took the lead, but 48 hours after his Vuelta win, the results of a positive test were made known for Methylphenidate. Arroyo and the Reynolds team denied that Arroyo doped and asked for a B-analysis which confirmed the positive A-sample, Arroyo became the first winner of the Vuelta a España to be disqualified. Delgado changed teams in 1985 but returned to Reynolds in 1988 where he won the 1988 Tour de France, in 1984, Miguel Indurain made his professional debut with the team. In 1990 Spanish bank Banesto took over as the sponsor of the team from Reynolds. Delgado was the leader for the Tour de France while Miguel Indurain. When Gorospe took the lead in that years Vuelta, the team went behind him in a bid to win the race. Over the following years, Indurain rose to become a dominator of stage races winning five editions of the Tour de France, Delgado was the team leader for the Vuelta. The team also achieved success with Jean-François Bernard who won the 1992 edition of Paris–Nice with the team, the team won the Vuelta again in 1998 with Abraham Olano. During this time Alex Zülle joined the team and finished the 1999 Tour de France second overall while legendary climber José María Jiménez performed in the Vuelta a España, the team became known as iBanesto. com in the final years of the sponsorship of the Banesto bank. In 2004 Illes Balears, the Balearic Islands Tourism Board, became the principal sponsor. Caisse dEpargne took over from Banesto as the sponsor in the 2005 season. Caisse dEpargne then became the sponsor in 2006 reversing the title sponsor ordering with the name. The team fielded a number of contenders in the 2005 Tour de France including Francisco Mancebo, Alejandro Valverde, Vladimir Karpets
22.
Fassa Bortolo
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Fassa Bortolo was a professional road bicycle racing team founded in 2000 and led by Giancarlo Ferretti. Dubbed the Silver Team, it managed to be one of the most successful teams of the era, in its six competitive years, Fassa Bortolo won over 200 races, including stages in all three Grand Tours. It was one of the inaugural 20 UCI ProTour teams in 2005, Fassa Bortolo stopped the sponsorship of the team after 2005. Efforts to find a new co-sponsor for 2006 proved unsuccessful, on October 14,2005, a man claiming to represent proposed new sponsor Sony Ericsson turned out to be an imposter, leaving all staff and riders unemployed. Petacchi and some of his helpers moved to the new Team Milram, the other Fassa Bortolo riders all moved to different teams. The main part of the riders signed early contracts with new teams for 2006, and eventually all riders found new teams
23.
ONCE (cycling team)
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ONCE cycling team, also known as Liberty Seguros, Liberty Seguros–Würth and in succession in its final year, Astana–Würth and Astana was a Spanish cycling team. It competed in the UCI ProTour circuit, on 25 May 2006, Liberty Mutual pulled out of primary sponsorship due to a doping scandal involving the directeur sportif, Manolo Saiz. On 2 June 2006, the team acquired a primary sponsor named Astana, würth was co-sponsor until 3 July 2006, withdrawing at the end of the 2006 Tour de France, in which Astana–Würth didnt compete. At the end of the season, Astana also withdrew due to the non-participation in the Tour, on 16 December 2006, the UCI withdrew the ProTour licence of Saizs company, Active Bay. Some riders and staff formed the Kazakhstan-based Astana Team, the team traces its lineage to the Spanish team, ONCE, sponsored by a lottery for the blind. Manolo Saiz, one of few managers who was not a former rider, introduced more professional management, closer supervision in coaching, equipment, in the 2003 Vuelta he was banned from the race after insulting a motorcycle-mounted TV cameraman, his comments broadcast live. ONCE team was known for its association with Laurent Jalabert and Alex Zülle in the 1990s, dominating spring races such as Paris–Nice, La Flèche Wallonne, the team won the Vuelta a España in 1995,1996 and 1997. It dominated the 1995 Vuelta with Jalabert winning overall, the points competition and it was also best team, with Johan Bruyneel third. Bruyneel became a directeur sportif and helped Lance Armstrong win seven consecutive Tours de France, ONCE team in the Tour de France had stage wins from Jalabert and domination in the team time trial. Zülle won the Vuelta in 1996 and 1997 but left the team in 1998, the team signed the 1998 winner and individual time trial specialist, Abraham Olano, who challenged in the 1999 Vuelta but never won a second Grand Tour. Joseba Beloki became leader and challenged Armstrong in the 2002 and 2003 Tours, Isidro Nozal led the 2003 Vuelta until Roberto Heras took the lead on the penultimate day. ONCEs sponsorship was so successful that brand penetration was 100% in Spain, at the end of 2003 ONCE stopped sponsorship. Saiz obtained a new sponsor, Liberty Mutual, most of the riders stayed, including Isidro Nozal and Igor González de Galdeano. Saiz signed Heras, he did not perform well at the 2004 Tour de France, in the 2005 the team started with wins in the Tour Down Under through Alberto Contador and Luis León Sánchez. In the 2005 Tour the team won the stage to Mende courtesy of Marcos Antonio Serrano, alexander Vinokourov joined in 2006 for three seasons to challenge for top finish in the Tour de France. Fellow Kazakhstan riders Andrei Kashechkin, formerly of Crédit Agricole, on 25 November, Roberto Heras was fired after a urine sample from the 2005 Vuelta a España, which he had won, tested positive for the blood-boosting drug EPO. Heras was stripped of what would have been a fourth win. On 23 May 2006, Saiz was arrested in relation to a doping scandal
24.
Liquigas
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Cannondale Pro Cycling Team was an Italian professional road bicycle racing team in the UCI ProTour. The most recent title sponsor, Cannondale, is an American bicycle manufacturing company, in 2005 the team was co-title sponsored by Liquigas and Bianchi and was named Liquigas-Bianchi. Liquigas was formed at the start of the UCI ProTour in 2005 and added a number of big names including Mario Cipollini, Danilo Di Luca, Stefano Garzelli, in 2007, Cannondale replaced Bianchi as the bicycle sponsor. This marked Cannondales return to the ProTour after discontinuing sponsorship of the Lampre-Caffita team at the end of the 2005 season. On 11 July 2008 the news broke from the French sports paper LEquipe that Spanish rider Manuel Beltrán had tested positive for EPO after the first stage of the tour and it was blood abnormalities before the start of the tour that led Frances Anti-Doping Agency to target the rider. According to AP a spokesperson for Liquigas confirmed the day that Beltrán had been thrown off the tour. It was also reported that the police had picked Beltrán up from his hotel where he had been staying with the rest of the Liquigas team and it was later confirmed that his B-sample also tested positive. From the 2009 Giro dItalia until the 2012 Tour de France, the team finished every Grand Tour with all nine riders, for the 2013 season Liquigas-Cannondale became Cannondale Pro Cycling as Cannondale Bicycle Corporation took over as the title sponsor in partnership with Brixia Sports. In August 2014 the team announced their intention to merge with Cannondale–Drapac for the 2015 season
25.
Cofidis (cycling team)
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Cofidis Solutions Crédits is a French professional road bicycle racing team sponsored by a money-lending company, Cofidis. It was started in 1996 by Cyrille Guimard the former manager of Bernard Hinault, Greg LeMond, the teams sponsor has supported the team despite repeated problems such as doping scandals. After it was part of the UCI ProTour for the ProTours first five seasons, Cyrille Guimard started the team in 1996 with backing from François Migraine, the chief executive of Cofidis. An acquisition was Lance Armstrong, formerly of Motorola Cycling Team, Armstrong was dropped because of his cancer and another American, Bobby Julich, became leader for stage races. Julichs place in the top three of the 1998 Tour de France brought the team to the spotlight, and Frank Vandenbroucke brought further results in classics and that year, Cofidis won the team classification in the Tour. Years of drought followed as Julich and Vandenbroucke left the team, vandenbrouckes Belgian compatriots, Nico Mattan, Chris Peers, Peter Farazijn, and Jo Planckaert, stayed on but were criticised for inconsistent performances. Cofidis, on the demand of Migraine, began paying riders by results, Belgian riders criticised the policy, saying it would lead riders to ride conservatively to be sure of good placings at the finish. They debated the issue publicly with the manager, Alain Bondue, David Millar raised the teams profile by winning the prologue of the 2000 Tour de France, taking leadership of the team. Millar criticized the system and the team relented. In 2004 Cofidis had three world champions – Igor Astarloa on the road, David Millar in the time trial. However, a scandal involving Millar and other riders led them to stop racing until it was resolved. The investigation decided that doping was by individual riders and that the team was not involved, however, David Millar has since suggested otherwise, in a strongly worded interview with the BBC. The team then returned to competition for the 2004 Tour de France, in which Stuart OGrady and David Moncoutié won stages, Moncoutié won on Bastille day again in the 2005 Tour de France – the only French stage win – with OGradys help. However, a new signing, Sylvain Chavanel failed to win a stage or to make a strong impression, OGrady and Matthew White left in 2006. Cédric Vasseur – often the road captain – also left, an early victory in Classic Haribo by Arnaud Coyot showed the team still had firepower. Cofidis won the first stage of the 2006 Tour de France with Jimmy Casper, for 2007 the team signed Belgians Nick Nuyens and Kevin De Weert from Quick Step-Innergetic. On 25 July 2007 Cofidis rider Christian Moreni failed his doping test after the 11th stage of the Tour de France and his blood contained traces of testosterone. The team withdrew from the Tour, on 29 September 2009, the UCI ProTour decided not to renew the ProTour licenses of Cofidis and Bbox Bouygues Telecom, due to poor results
26.
Quick-Step Floors
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Quick-Step Floors is a Belgian UCI World Tour cycling team led by team manager Patrick Lefévère. The directeurs sportifs are Davide Bramati, Wilfried Peeters, Rik Van Slycke, Tom Steels, Brian Holm, the team was created as Quick-Step–Davitamon in 2003 from staff and riders of Domo-Farm Frites and Mapei–Quick-Step when the latter disbanded after nine years in the sport. Paolo Bettini won the UCI Road World Cup in 2003 and 2004 as well as the 2004 Summer Olympics road title in 2004, in late 2005 Tom Boonen won the 2005 UCI Road World Championships in Madrid, where Michael Rogers won the time-trial. In 2006 Boonen retained the Tour of Flanders and held the jersey in the 2006 Tour de France during stage 3–6. Paolo Bettini won the championship in Salzburg and retained his Giro di Lombardia crown. In 2007 Tom Boonen won the classification in the Tour de France. Bettini defended his championship in Stuttgart. In 2008 Gert Steegmans took the stage of the 2008 Tour de France on the Champs-Élysées. Paolo Bettini retired after the championship in Varese. In both 2008 and 2009 Stijn Devolder took the Tour of Flanders and Tom Boonen, Paris–Roubaix, in October 2012, the team fired their veteran rider Levi Leipheimer after he admitted to doping in a sworn affidavit to USADA. This was despite the statement that commended Leipheimer for his open cooperation in the USADA investigation that exposed Lance Armstrong long term cheating in cycling via doping. The teams action was described by USADA head Travis Tygart as The classic Omertà move right, on the one hand, they say they congratulate him on coming forward, their action terminating him for being truthful speaks a lot louder than their words. Cyclingnews noted that Omega Pharma general manager Patrick Lefevere had admitted in 2007 to having used doping products, including amphetamines, Lefevere is still CEO of Etixx as of September 2015. On 17 July 2014, the announced that Iljo Keisse had been given a 2-year contract extension. Tony Martin confirmed via his Twitter account that he had signed a 2-year contract extension, in 2014 Michał Kwiatkowski won a rainbow jersey in 2014 UCI Road World Championships – Mens road race in Ponferrada, Spain. In August 2015, the team signed Davide Martinelli for the 2016 and 2017 seasons, on the second rest day of the 2014 Tour de France the team announced a change to one of their main sponsors from 2015 onwards for 3 season. Omega Pharma will be exchanged for one of its subsidiaries, Etixx, giving a new team name, Etixx is a brand of supplements and nutrition products by Omega Pharma, while Quick-Step is a manufacturer of laminate flooring. On the eve of the 2015 Tour of Flanders Quickstep confirmed their sponsorship of the team would be extended to the end of the 2017 season, in September 2015, the team announced that supermarket chain Lidl would sponsor the team, becoming the teams Fresh food supplier
27.
UAE Team Emirates
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UAE Team Emirates is an Emirati road bicycle racing team. The team is a member of the UCI ProTour, and has been since the tour was formed as the top category of road cycling in 2005, however the team was temporarily suspended from the ProTour in 2010, missing one ProTour event. The team consists mostly of Italian riders, general manager Giuseppe Saronni was himself a professional cyclist. Following the tradition at Saeco, the team is known for its publicity stunts. In the 2005 Giro dItalia the team engaged in a press campaign Battaile dItalia featuring their co-captains Gilberto Simoni, during a rest day of the Giro, the team elected to visit the Monza race track for a photo-op and some training sessions. For the 2013 season the team no longer be using Wilier bikes. Although Wilier had been contracted through to the end of the 2013 season, they cited that Lampre broke the terms and conditions of the contract, former Saunier Duval–Prodir team manager Mauro Gianetti was announced as the co-ordinator for the project. However when the UCI awarded 17 WorldTour licences to teams in November, according to Saronni, the reason for the delay was that the head of the TJ Sport project, Li Zhiqiang, had fallen seriously ill, which prevented funding for the project from being confirmed. As a result the team looked elsewhere for sponsorship, securing funding from the United Arab Emirates, the UCI confirmed the teams WorldTour licence on 20 December. In February 2017, the announced that arline Emirates had signed on with the team as a naming-rights sponsor. The team will subsequently be known as, UAE Team Emirates
28.
Gerolsteiner (cycling team)
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Gerolsteiner was a German road bicycle racing team in the UCI ProTour. It was sponsored by the water company Gerolsteiner Brunnen and Specialized. The team was founded in 1997 as Schauff Oeschelbronn professional cycling team by team manager Hans-Michael Holczer and sports directors Rolf Gölz, in 1999 Gerolsteiner who had previously sponsored the Cologne Cycling Team in 1998 became the title sponsors. The contract with Georg Totschnig in 2001 helped make the team enter Division I, in 2003 the team participated in the Tour de France for the first time. The leader for several seasons was Georg Totschnig, who recorded top 10 finishes in the Tour de France and was an excellent climber, in 2005, Totschnig won stage 14 of the Tour, showing his skill on the 15 km long climb up the Port de Pailhères. He was overfilled with emotion, after becoming the first Austrian to win a stage since Max Bulla in 1931. In 2007, with former riders Georg Totschnig and Levi Leipheimer gone, the team announced in September 2007 that Gerolsteiner will not be renewing its sponsorship agreement at the end of the 2008 season. In August 2008 the team confirmed it will dissolve after the 2008 season, in October 2008, riders Stefan Schumacher and Bernhard Kohl were tested positive for CERA. List of teams and cyclists in the 2008 Tour de France 2008 Tour de France Tour de France Official website
29.
De Nardi
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De Nardi was a professional cycling team based in Italy. Founded under a Slovakian license, they helped nurture talented young riders, in 2003, the merged with Team Colpack-Astro, and took on Colpack as a co-sponsor. In 2005, Italian hotel group Domina Vacanze sponsored the team, for the 2005 season the team competed in the 2005 UCI ProTour. However, they didnt have the budget of the other teams, for the 2006 season, the team merged with Team Wisenhof to create Team Milram. In 2009 an amateur team sponsored by De Nardi and Colpack emerged, now known as Team Colpack
30.
Erik Zabel
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Erik Zabel is a German former professional road bicycle racer who last raced with Milram. With over 200 professional wins he is considered by some to be one of the greatest German cyclists, Zabel won the Milan–San Remo four times and numerous six-day track events. He was one of the few road cyclists of recent times who raced all year, for season 2012 he joined Team Katusha as sprint coach. He previously held that position with the HTC–Highroad team until their dissolution. However, his esteem dropped sharply after admitting his use of doping for the majority of his career, Zabel grew up in East Berlin, in the borough Marzahn. His father Detlev was a professional cyclist and his first international success as a junior was at the track world championship when he was third in the team pursuit on the East German team. In 1988 he was fifth in the points race, in 1989, as a 19-year-old, he was included in the East German national track team for professionals. That year he became champion of East Germany in the individual pursuit. After the Fall of the Berlin Wall he moved to Dortmund and became part of the amateur team RC Olympia Dortmund, in 1992 he made name as a strong sprinter, winning the green jersey in the Peace Race and taking several stage wins in stage races. In July he was fourth in the race of the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. In late 1992 he turned professional with the small German team Union-Frondenberg, on 27 April 1994 Zabel tested positive for clostebol metabolites in Veenendaal-Veenendaal. He was fined 3000 Swiss francs and lost 50 points, a suspension on probation was cancelled. Later that year he won Paris–Tours in a sprint, his first win in a classic race. In 1995 he won two stages on the Tour de France, his first success on a grand tour, in 1996 he won again two stages in the Tour de France and won the points classification. He took over the green jersey in the 10th stage and wore it until the end of the Tour and that year his Telekom team took first and second place in the general classification as well, with Bjarne Riis and Jan Ullrich respectively. In 1997 Zabel won his first monument classic, Milan–San Remo and he was the only sprinter in a group of forty to make it to the finish and easily won the sprint. Later that year, he won three stages on the Tour de France and secured his second green jersey, in 1998 he won Milan–San Remo a second time and became national road champion of Germany. He won his third green jersey in the Tour de France, in 1999 he was second in Milan–San Remo, winning the peloton sprint behind Andrei Tchmil who had broken clear in the final kilometer and managed to maintain his effort
31.
Points classification in the Tour de France
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The points classification is a secondary competition in the Tour de France, that started in 1953. Points are given for high finishes in a stage and for winning intermediate sprints, and it is considered a sprinters competition. The leader is indicated by a jersey which has become a symbol for the points classification in the sense that when a cyclist wins the points classification. After scandals in the 1904 Tour de France, the rules of the 1905 Tour de France were changed, the winner was no longer determined by the time system, but with the points system. The cyclists received points, equal to their ranking in the stage, after the 1912 Tour de France, the system was changed back to the time system that is still in use. In the 1953 Tour de France, to celebrate the 50th birthday of the Tour de France, the system was reintroduced. Because the leader in the general classification wears a jersey, the leader in the points classification also received a special jersey. The color green was chosen because the sponsor was a lawn mower producer, in the first years, the cyclist only received penalty points for not finishing with a high place, so the cyclist with the least points was awarded the green jersey. From 1959 on, the system was changed so the cyclists were awarded points for high place finishes, in 1968 the jersey was red, to please the sponsor. On four occasions, the winner of the classification was also the winner of the general classification. In 1969, Eddy Merckx won the classification, the points classification and the mountains classification. Currently, the classification is calculated by adding up the points collected in the stage. Points are rewarded for the first cyclists to cross the finish-line or the sprint line. In the 2011 Tour de France, the scheme was used, Riders can lose points for various infractions to the rules. Before the start of the Tour de France, the organization declares which stages are considered flat, when the order in which cyclists crossed the line cannot be determined or when cyclists score exactly the same time in the prologue/individual time trial, the cyclists divide the points. A cyclist that does not finish a stage is removed from the points classification, after every stage, the leader in the points classification is given a green jersey. In the event of a tie in the ranking, the cyclist with the most stage victories is the leader, if that is also a tie, the number of intermediate sprint victories indicates the leader. If that is also a tie, the classification determines the leader
32.
Fabio Casartelli
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Fabio Casartelli was an Italian cyclist and an Olympic gold medalist who died in a crash on the descent of the Col de Portet dAspet, France, during the 15th stage of the 1995 Tour de France. He was born in Como, Italy, Fabio Casartelli showed great promise as an amateur. He had many important wins and placings between 1990 and 1992, climaxing in winning a medal in the 1992 Summer Olympics road race. He finished the 194 km race in 4,35,21, Casartelli began his professional career in 1993 with the Ariostea team. He won a stage in the Settimana Bergamasca race, came second in a stage of the Tour de Suisse, in 1994 he moved to ZG-Mobili. For his third year, he moved to Team Motorola. He placed sixth in the Spanish Clásica de Almería and third in the stage of the Spanish Tour of Murcia. On 18 July, during the stage of the 1995 Tour de France, Casartelli. Casartellis head struck the concrete blocks along the roadway, causing head injuries. While being flown to a hospital by helicopter, Casartelli stopped breathing. It has been argued that Casartelli would have survived if he had been wearing a bicycle helmet, gerard Porte, the Tours senior doctor, claimed that protection was academic since the fatal blow was to an area of Casartellis head that would not have been covered by a helmet. His Motorola team continued the Tour de France, crossing the line of the next stage first. The peloton followed behind, riding slowly, the Société du Tour de France awarded the stage prizes as normal, and the riders donated all the money won that day to a fund established for his family. The Tour later matched that amount, and thousands of individuals contributed to the fund, three days after the accident Fabio Casartellis teammate Lance Armstrong dedicated his stage finish to Casartelli by pointing at the sky as he rode over the finish line. The Société du Tour de France and the Motorola team placed a memorial near where he crashed, situated at co-ordinates 42°56′59. 89″N 0°49′7. 74″E. The memorial is a sundial arranged such that the suns shadow highlights three dates — his birth and death and 2 August, the day he won his Olympic gold medal. The bicycle he was riding at the time of his crash was placed in the chapel at the Madonna del Ghisallo. In 1997, the young rider classification in the Tour de France was renamed Souvenir Fabio Casartelli in his honour, Tour de France 1995, Crash of Fabio Casartelli on YouTube
33.
Col de Portet d'Aspet
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The Col de Portet dAspet is a mountain pass in the central Pyrenees in the department of Haute-Garonne in France. It is situated on the D618 road between Aspet and Saint-Girons and connects the Ger and Bouigane valleys, on the slopes of the Pic de Paloumère, starting from Audressein, in Ariège, the climb is 18.1 km long. Over this distance, the climb is 557 m at a gradient of 3. 1%. The climb proper starts at Saint-Lary,5.9 km and 393 m from the summit, starting from Aspet, in Haute-Garonne, the climb is 14.3 km long. Over this distance, the climb is 594 m at a gradient of 4. 2%. The climb proper starts at the D618/D44 junction,4.4 km /436 m from the summit, with sections in excess of 11%. The Col de Portet dAspet was first used in the Tour de France in 1910 and has appeared regularly since, the leader over the summit in 1910 was Octave Lapize. Since 1947, the Col has featured 32 times including on Stage 12 of the 2015 race, on 18 July 1995, during the fifteenth stage of the 1995 Tour de France, Fabio Casartelli and a few other riders crashed on the descent of the Col de Portet dAspet. Casartelli sustained heavy facial and head injuries and lost consciousness, while being transported via helicopter to a local hospital, he stopped breathing and after numerous resuscitation attempts was declared dead. The Société du Tour de France and the Motorola team placed a memorial dedication to Casartelli on the spot where he crashed. Camping on top Col de Portet dAspet on Google Maps
34.
1995 Tour de France
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The 1995 Tour de France was the 82nd Tour de France, taking place from 1 to 23 July. It was Miguel Indurains fifth and final victory in the Tour, on the fifteenth stage Italian rider Fabio Casartelli died after an accident on the Col de Portet dAspet. The points classification was won by Laurent Jalabert, while Richard Virenque won the mountains classification, marco Pantani won the young rider classification, and ONCE won the team classification. There were 21 teams in the 1995 Tour de France, each composed of 9 cyclists, the teams were selected in two rounds. In May 1995, the first fifteen teams were announced, in June, five wildcards were announced. Shortly before the start, Le Groupement folded because their team leader Luc Leblanc was injured and their spot went to Aki–Gipiemme, the first team in the reserve list. Additionally, the decided to invite one extra team, a combined team of Team Telekom and ZG Mobili, with six riders from Telekom. The teams entering the race were, Qualified teams Invited teams Banestos Indurain and his main challengers were expected to be Rominger from Mapei, Berzin from Gewiss and Zülle from ONCE. The 1995 Tour de France started on 1 July, and had two rest days, the first at 10 July when the cyclists were transferred from Seraing to Le Grand-Bornand, and the second on 17 July in Saint-Girons. The first riders in the prologue rode in sunny weather, but then it started to rain, and the riders who started late had to ride on slippery roads. Chris Boardman, a big favourite for the prologue and an outsider for the classification, crashed during his ride, was then hit by his teams car. The winner of the prologue was Jacky Durand, one of the early starters, Durand stayed in the lead until the third stage, when Laurent Jalabert overtook him due to time bonuses won in intermediate sprints. Jalabert kept the jersey for two stages, losing it due to a crash in the fourth stage. Ivan Gotti, member of the Gewiss-team that had won the time trial in stage three, became the new leader. A surprising attack from Indurain in stage seven changed the standings, Indurain attacked in the hilly Ardennes, and only Johan Bruyneel was able to follow him. Indurain did all the work, creating a margin of almost one minute, and Bruyneel only followed him, Indurain was now in second place in the general classification, and after winning the time trial in the eighth stage, he became the new leader. His closest rival in the classification was Bjarne Riis at 23 seconds. The Tour then reached the mountains in stage nine
35.
Col du Ballon d'Alsace
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The Col du Ballon dAlsace is a mountain pass situated close to the summit of the Ballon dAlsace in the Vosges Mountains of France. It connects Saint-Maurice-sur-Moselle with Masevaux and Belfort, the Ballon dAlsace was the first official mountain climb in the Tour de France on 11 July 1905 although the tour had crossed the slightly lower Col de la République in each of the previous two years. The first rider to the top of the Ballon was René Pottier, Stage 9 of the 2005 Tour crossed this pass on the centenary of the original climb. The historic ascent, as used in the early Tours de France, is from Saint-Maurice-sur-Moselle, from here, the ascent is 9.0 km long climbing 619 m at an average of 6. 9%. From the south, the starts at Malvaux,4.5 km north of Giromagny. The climb is 12.4 km long, gaining 643 m at an average of 5. 2%, from Sewen, the climb is 13.2 km long, at an average of 5. 1%, gaining 678 m in height. This climb starts on the D466 and joins the route from the south after 10 km, the middle section is steep, in excess of 8%. The Ballon dAlsace was first crossed by the Tour de France on the stage of the 1905 tour. In the first two Tours de France, the race had crossed the Col de la République south of Saint-Etienne. Although only 17 metres higher than the Col de la République, unfortunately, the pace of his ascent exacerbated injuries that he had sustained in a fall on Stage 1, and Pottier was forced to withdraw from the race the next day. Thus was the myth born that the Col dAlsace was the first mountain crossing in the history of the Tour de France, the Tour returned to the Ballon dAlsace the following year and Pottier was again the first rider over the summit. He arrived at Saint-Maurice-sur-Moselle in a group of 19 riders, according to LAuto, At the foot of the climb, Pottier bolted and he hadnt reached the first hairpin before the group was torn apart. The other riders soon dropped away with only Augustin Ringeval able to keep in contact with Pottier although even he was dropped well before the summit, Pottier. A brief but terrifying duel breaks out, until, making a demand from his boundless reserves. Ringeval loses ground, makes it up again with a magnificent effort, then back again. Pottier crossed the summit alone, over four minutes ahead of the rider and maintained his lead into the stage finish at Dijon. Pottier was found hanged at his home the following January, having committed suicide, following his death, a monument to him was erected at the summit of the Col du Ballon dAlsace. The Tour de France crossed over the Col du Ballon dAlsace every year between 1905 and 1914, and then five times in the 1930s
36.
Individual time trial
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An individual time trial is a road bicycle race in which cyclists race alone against the clock on flat or rolling terrain, or up a mountain road such as Alpe dHuez. There are also track-based time trials where riders compete in velodromes, the opening stage of stage race will often be a short individual time trial called a prologue. Starting times are at intervals, usually one or two minutes apart. The starting sequence is based on the finishing times in preceding races with the highest ranked cyclist starting last. Starting later gives the racer the advantage of knowing what time they need to beat, competitors are not permitted to draft behind each other. Any help between riders is forbidden, the rider with the fastest time is declared the winner. Bicycle construction is limited by regulations covering dimensions and other such as weight. Race regulations typically dictate a minimum distance behind the cyclist which the car must maintain, the Vuelta a España often features a final individual time trial in Madrid in which the winner is often decided, providing much drama and excitement at the end of the stage race. In recent years, Óscar Sevilla and Roberto Heras have seen their lead evaporate in the trial in Madrid. The Grand Prix des Nations was an event, professionals may also compete in the annual World time trial championship. The individual time trial is also an Olympic event in which professionals are allowed to participate, most recent winners of the Tour de France have been good time-trialists, exceptions include Marco Pantani, Carlos Sastre, and Andy Schleck, who were climbing specialists. As a result, the trial is often considered the most difficult part of any major competition for young cyclists. Special aerodynamic time trial bicycles, clothing, helmets, aerobars, generally, components are designed to be as aerodynamic as possible, as most of the riders effort goes into overcoming aerodynamic drag. TT bikes often have lower handlebars than normal road racing bikes to facilitate this, also, the saddle is sometimes moved forwards relative to the handlebars and bottom bracket to allow the hips a more natural angle of motion, improving performance. Up until the late 1980s, low-profile bullhorn handlebars were used, then in the late 1980s triathletes developed so-called tri-bars that allowed for a much better aerodynamic position. Fignon was using conventional handlebars, Lemond the new triathlon style, the concept has changed little since then, with only Scotsman Graeme Obree attempting to improve the idea. His arms-under-the-torso tuck was revolutionary, helping him and others to break world records, the UCI banned it in 1994, but he came back with the Superman position, an evolution of the traditional tri position, but with the arms fully stretched out in front. Equipment used is very specialized, and component manufacturers can spend vast sums of time, deep section or solid disc wheels are often used to reduce turbulence around the spokes, but these can affect handling in windy conditions
David Zabriskie (USA)
Tom Boonen (BEL)
Robbie McEwen (AUS)
Lorenzo Bernucci (ITA)
Pieter Weening (NED)
Michael Rasmussen (DEN)
Alejandro Valverde (ESP)
Alexander Vinokourov (KAZ)
David Moncoutié (FRA)
Georg Totschnig (AUT)
Jan Ullrich (GER)
Thor Hushovd (NOR) 
Santiago Botero (COL)
Yaroslav Popovych (UKR) 
Vladimir Karpets (RUS)
Thomas Löfkvist (SWE)
