Caisse d'Epargne
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| Caisse d'Epargne | ||||||||||||||
| Team information | ||||||||||||||
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| UCI code | GCE | |||||||||||||
| Based |  Spain |
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| Founded | 2004 | |||||||||||||
| Discipline(s) | Road | |||||||||||||
| Status | ProTour | |||||||||||||
| Key personnel | ||||||||||||||
| General manager | Eusebio Unzue | |||||||||||||
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Caisse d'Epargne (UCI Team Code: GCE) is professional road bicycle racing team which participates in the UCI ProTour. The title sponsor is a French bank, part of the Groupe Caisse d'Epargne, and 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). 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. Directeur sportifs of the team include Neil Stephens, Alfonso Galilea and José Luis Jaimerena.
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[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Illes Balears [IBA] (2005)
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.
[edit] Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears [CEI] (2006)
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. It is, however, likely that he will eventually be upgraded to the winner's position. A urine sample taken from Phonak rider and Tour winner Floyd Landis immediately after his Stage 17 win has 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]
[edit] Prominent riders
- Alejandro Valverde, born 1980, Spain
- Francisco Mancebo, born 1976, Spain, moved to AG2R Prévoyance (2006)
- Óscar Pereiro, born 1977, Spain, moved from Phonak (2006)
[edit] Major results
- 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
- 2008
- Trofeo Pollença (José Joaquín Rojas)
- Vuelta a Andalucía - Team classification
- Liege-Bastogne-Liege (Alejandro Valverde)
[edit] Team roster
As of December 25, 2007.[7]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Reynolds 1980. de wielersite.nl. Retrieved on 2008-01-21.
- ^ Biography of Pedro Delgado. Pedro Delgado.com. Retrieved on 2008-01-21.
- ^ 1982 General Information. La Vuelta.com. Retrieved on 2008-01-18.
- ^ "Backup Sample on Landis Is Positive", New York Times, 2006-08-05.
- ^ "Pereiro cautious about Landis case", SportsIllustrated.com, 2006-07-27.
- ^ "I am the Tour champion - Pereiro", BBC Sport, 2006-08-05.
- ^ Caisse d'Epargne - Riders. UCI. Retrieved on 2007-12-25.
[edit] External links
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