Movistar Team (men's team)
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Team information | ||
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UCI code | GCE | |
Registered | Spain | |
Founded | 1980 | |
Discipline(s) | Road | |
Status | ProTour | |
Key personnel | ||
General manager | Eusebio Unzue | |
Team name history | ||
1980–1989 1990–2000 2001–2003 2004–2005 2005 2006 2007 | Reynolds Banesto iBanesto.com Illes Balears-Banesto Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears Caisse d'Epargne | |
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Caisse d'Epargne (UCI Team Code: GCE) is professional road bicycle racing team which participates in the UCI ProTour and has achieved 11 Overall Victories in Grand Tours. The title sponsor is a French bank, part of the Groupe Caisse d'Epargne. The team traces its history back to the Banesto team that included 5-time Tour de France winner Miguel Indurain, 2-time winner of Vuelta a España Alex Zülle and legendary climber José Maria Jiménez.
The team uses Pinarello bikes with Campagnolo parts (Pinarello supplied the team with "Paris FP Carbon" bicycles for the 2006 Tour de France while throughout the 2008 season they have ridden the Pinarello Prince). Eusebio Unzue is the manager of the team as of the 2008 season after the long running manager, José Miguel Echavarri, retired from the sport. Directeurs sportifs of the team include Neil Stephens, Alfonso Galilea and José Luis Jaimerena.
History
Reynolds team
The team began in 1980 as the Reynolds team which José Miguel Echavarri García as the directeur sportif.[1] In 1982 signed a young Pedro Delgado who acted as a domestique for team leader Angel Arroyo during the 1982 Vuelta a España.[2] 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 Ritalin. 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.[3] Delgado changed teams in 1985 but returned to Reynolds in 1988 where he won the 1988 Tour de France and then the 1989 Vuelta a España with the team. In 1984, Miguel Indurain made his professional debut with the team.
Major victories
- 1981
- 1982
- 1983
- Vuelta Ciclista al País Vasco - Julián Gorospe
- Vuelta a España - 3 stages
- Tour de France - 1 stage (Angel Arroyo)
- 1984
- Tour de France - 2 stages (Angel Arroyo), (Eduardo Chozas Olmo)
- Vuelta a España - 2 stages
- Ruta del Sol - Julián Gorospe
- 1985
- 1986
- Vuelta a Murcia - Miguel Indurain
- Tour de l'Avenir - Miguel Indurain
- Vuelta a España King of the Mountains - José Luis Laguia Martinez
- 1988
- 1989
- Paris-Nice - Miguel Indurain
- Critérium International - Miguel Indurain
- Tour de France - 1 stage (Miguel Indurain)
- Vuelta a España Overall - Pedro Delgado
Banesto
In 1990 Spanish bank Banesto took over as the main sponsor of the Reynolds team. Delgado was the team leader for the Tour de France while Miguel Indurain and Julian Gorospe were the leaders for the week long stage races. When Gorospe took the lead in that year's Vuelta, the team went behind him in a bid to win the race. However Gorospe lost the leader's jersey and Delgado took over the leadership but could not regain the time that Italian Marco Giovannetti had gained and ended the race second overall behind Giovannetti. Over the following years, Indurain rose to become a dominator of stage races winning five editions of the Tour de France and two editions of the Giro d'Italia. Delgado was the team leader for the Vuelta. The team also achieved success with Jean Francois 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 Maria Jiménez performed in the Vuelta a Espana. The team became known as iBanesto.com in the final years of the sponsorship of the Banesto bank.
Major victories
- 1990
- Paris-Nice - Miguel Indurain
- Vuelta al País Vasco - Julián Gorospe
- Clásica de San Sebastián - Miguel Indurain
- 1991
- 1992
- Paris-Nice - Jean-François Bernard
- Critérium International - Jean-François Bernard
- Volta a Catalunya - Miguel Indurain
- Giro d'Italia Overall - Miguel Indurain
- Tour de France Overall - Miguel Indurain
- 1993
- 1994
- 1995
- 1996
- 1997
- 1998
- Vuelta a España Overall - Abraham Olano
- Mountains Classification - José María Jiménez
- Team Classification
- 1999
- Mountains Classification - José María Jiménez
- Team Classification
- 2001
- Mountains Classification - José María Jiménez
- Team Classification
- 2002
- 2003
- 2004
Illes Balears
After the end of ibanesto.com's sponsorship in 2003, the Illes Balears (Balearic Islands) tourism board took over sponsorship of the team. Caisse d'Epargne became a sponsor in 2005 when the team was known as Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne and main title sponsor in 2006 with the name, Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears. The team fielded a number of strong contenders in the 2005 Tour de France including Francisco Mancebo (former National Champion of Spain), Alejandro Valverde , Vladimir Karpets (2004 Tour de France white jersey winner) and sprinter Isaac Gálvez. Mancebo produced the best results finishing fourth overall in the General Classification.
Caisse d'Epargne
Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears finished fifth overall (56 minutes, 53 seconds behind Team T-Mobile) in the Team Classification at the 2006 Tour de France. Individually, the team's top rider, Óscar Pereiro, finished in second place. The Tour victory of Phonak rider Floyd Landis was almost immediately called into question, after a urine sample taken after his Stage 17 win twice tested positive for banned synthetic testosterone as well as a ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone nearly three times the limit allowed by World Anti-Doping Agency rules.[4]
After hearing of the positive "A" test, Pereiro stated that it was only an initial, unconfirmed result and he would not yet consider Landis guilty or himself the Tour winner. "I have too much respect for Landis to do otherwise", he said.[5] After hearing that the Landis "B" test also came back positive, Pereiro stated that he now considers himself Tour champion and the Landis scandal should not diminish his own achievement. "Right now I feel like the winner of the Tour de France", Pereiro said. "It's a victory for the whole team."[6] After nearly two years of appeals, Pereiro was officially upgraded to Tour champion for 2006.[7]
Major victories
- 2006
- 2007
- Team classification
- Stage 6, Paris-Nice - Luis León Sánchez
- Trofeo Cala Millor-Cala Bona (2007-02-12) - Vicente Reynès
- Tour Méditerranéen Stage 1 - Team time trial (Florent Brard, Vladimir Efimkin, Imanol Erviti, Marco Fertonani, José Vicente Garcia, Iván Gutiérrez, Alexei Markov, Aitor Pérez)
- Vuelta a Mallorca - Luis León Sánchez
- Volta a Catalunya Stage 1 - Team time trial
- Tour de Suisse - General classification: Vladimir Karpets
- Eneco Tour (Iván Gutiérrez)
- 2008
- Trofeo Pollença (José Joaquín Rojas)
- Vuelta a Andalucía - Team classification
- Vuelta a Murcia - Stages 4 and General Classification (Alejandro Valverde)
- Tirreno-Adriatico - Stage 3 (Joaquin Rodríguez)
- Liege-Bastogne-Liege (Alejandro Valverde)
- Dauphiné Libéré - Stages 1 & 3 and General Classification (Alejandro Valverde)
- Stage 1 Tour de France (Alejandro Valverde)
- Stage 7 Tour de France (Luis León Sánchez)
- Clasica San Sebastian (Alejandro Valverde)
- Eneco Tour (Iván Gutiérrez)
- Vuelta a Burgos (Xabier Zandio)
- Stage 2 Vuelta a España (Alejandro Valverde)
- Stage 18 Vuelta a España (Imanol Erviti)
- Stage 19 Vuelta a España (David Arroyo)
- 2009
- Stage 2, Tour Méditerranéen (Team Time Trial)
- Tour Méditerranéen - General Classification (Luis León Sánchez)
- Stage 1, Tour du Haut Var (Luis León Sánchez)
- Paris-Nice - Stage 7 and General Classification (Luis León Sánchez)
- Tirreno-Adriatico - Stage 4 (Joaquin Rodríguez)
- Stages 3 & 5, Vuelta a Castilla y Leon (Alejandro Valverde)
- Stage 1, Vuelta al Pais Vasco (Luis León Sánchez)
- Klasika Primavera (Alejandro Valverde)
- 4 Jours de Dunkerque - General Classification (Rui Costa)
- Volta a Catalunya - Stage 3 and General Classification (Alejandro Valverde)
- Dauphiné Libéré - General Classification (Alejandro Valverde)
- Stage 8 Tour de France (Luis León Sánchez)
Team roster
As of January 19, 2009.[8]
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See also
References
- ^ "Reynolds 1980". de wielersite.nl. Retrieved 2008-01-21.
- ^ "Biography of Pedro Delgado". Pedro Delgado.com. Retrieved 2008-01-21.
- ^ "1982 General Information". La Vuelta.com. Retrieved 2008-01-18.
- ^ "Backup Sample on Landis Is Positive". New York Times. 2006-08-05.
{{cite news}}
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(help) - ^ "Pereiro cautious about Landis case". SportsIllustrated.com. 2006-07-27.
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(help) - ^ "I am the Tour champion - Pereiro". BBC Sport. 2006-08-05.
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(help) - ^ http://www.bicycling.com/tourdefrance/article/0,6802,s1-7-123-17423-1,00.html
- ^ "Caisse d'Epargne - Riders". UCI. Retrieved 2009-1-19.
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