T-Mobile Team

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Image:T-Mobile 2006 team.jpg

T-Mobile Team is an international professional road bicycle racing team. It carries, like many road cycling teams, the name of its owners and chief sponsor - the T-Mobile company. The team participates in many international cycling tours, such as the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia. Since 2005, the team is one of 20 teams that compete in the new UCI ProTour.

The team was founded in 1991 as Team Telekom, sponsored by T-Mobile's corporate parent Deutsche Telekom - but as of 2004 their name changed to the current T-Mobile Team. It contains a total of 25 riders, 9 physiotherapists or nurses, 9 mechanics and service persons, and has 22 partners. The team is under the management of Olaf Ludwig and Eddy Vandenhecke; it has the spokesperson Luuc Eisenga; and is under the sports directors Mario Kummer, Frans van Looy, Brian Holm, and Giovanni Fidanza.

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History

Soon after the team's founding in 1991 it became an important presence on the international cycling stage. In 1994 it won a cycling world cup victory at Paris, and a year later in 1995 it won two of the Tour de France stages. In the next two years, 1996 and 1997, the team won the tour in general. In 1998 it won the Milan-San Remo and came second in the Tour de France. It won the Vuelta a España in 1999, and the next year won an Olympic event, made an overall World Cup victory, and won the Milan-San Remo and Amstel Gold Race. In 2001 it did not secure any overall wins, apart from being the team trial world champion. It came second in the Tour de France, winning three stages between this tour and Vuelta. In 2002 it won Paris-Nice and came third in world road racing championships. It won the Tour de Suisse in 2003, came third place in the 2003 Tour de France, won the Amstel Gold Race, Paris-Tours and Championship of Zürich. From 2004 the team changed its name and raced in the 2004 Tour de France on carbon fiber bicycles from Giant Bicycles. The team won the 2005 Tour de France with the team leader, Jan Ullrich, 3rd overall in the general classification. Team rider Alexandre Vinokourov won two stages, including the final stage on the Champs-Elysees, and Giuseppe Guerini won one stage.

In July 2005 Vinokourov left the team to pursue his chances of winning the tour de France as a team captain. He joined the Liberty Seguros team. He had been with T-Mobile since 2000. [1] [2] Erik Zabel also left the team oin 2005 to go to Milram-Domina Vacanze.[3]

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Film: Hell on Wheels

In 2005 a film titled Hell on Wheels was released. It is a record of the 100th anniversary (but only the 90th running because of World War I and World War II) of the Tour de France in 2003 from the perspective of the then-Team Telekom. [4]

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