Motorola (cycling team)
Motorola ( 7-Eleven until 1990 ) was an American professional cycling team .
The team was founded in 1981 by Jim Ochowicz as the first professional cycling team in the USA under the name of the then main sponsor 7-Eleven . In 1985 the team made their debut in European cycling by participating in the Giro d'Italia . With Andrew Hampsten , the team was able to win a Giro stage. A year later, the 7-Eleven team took part in the Tour de France in 1986 . During the race, Canadian Alex Stieda was the first North American to wear the yellow jersey , while Davis Phinney was the first American to win a stage of the Tour de France. The following year, 7-Eleven achieved their greatest success with Andrew Hampsten's overall victory at the Giro d'Italia.
After the departure of the previous sponsor, Motorola , a US electronics company, took over the sponsorship in 1991. The sporting director during this time included a. Hennie Kuiper and the five-time Olympic speed skating champion Eric Heiden .
Lance Armstrong began his professional career at Motorola in 1992 and won his first stage in the Tour de France and, surprisingly, the road world championships just a year later . In the following years George Hincapie , Bobby Julich , Kevin Livingston and Axel Merckx were signed .
In 1995 the young Italian Fabio Casartelli , winner of the Olympic road race in 1992, had a fatal accident in the Tour de France when he fell . On the next stage, the entire Motorola team crossed the finish line side by side as a sign of respect for the peloton. Lance Armstrong won the Clásica San Sebastián in the fall of the same year .
After the 1996 season, Motorola ended its cycling involvement. George Hincapie then moved to the newly emerging American professional team US Postal . Lance Armstrong and Bobby Julich switched to Équipe Cofidis .
The previous team 7-Eleven was inducted into the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame in 1997 as the first US professional cycling team to successfully race in Europe.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Team 7-Eleven on usbhof.org ( Memento of the original from December 8th, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
