Team Coast

The Team Coast is a former German cycling team , that of the eponymous clothing company sponsored. It was founded in 1999 under the name Leonardo Coast and dissolved in 2003 for financial reasons. The successor formation Team Bianchi , supported by the team's bike supplier, FIV Edoardo Bianchi SpA , was also dissolved at the end of 2003.

Team Coast

Team Coast was founded in 1999 and in 2001 was promoted to the group of the world's best teams, then called Groupe Sportif I (GS I) . At that time, Alex Zülle and Fernando Escartín were signed on , both drivers who had already stood on the podium at the Tour de France , but whose careers were already drawing to a close. In the first year as a GS-I team, apart from a stage victory at the spring trip Paris – Nice through Zülle, there was not a single victory. In 2002, Ángel Casero, the 2001 Vuelta winner, joined the team. The sporting breakthrough came in that year. Already in late winter victories were won in a stage race in Dubai, Alex Zülle won the Tour de Suisse , Aitor Garmendia came second in the Germany Tour and the Tour of Catalonia and Ángel Casero was sixth in the Vuelta a España .

For the 2003 season, the winner was 1997 Tour de France , Jan Ullrich , committed, who after his doping ban , the Team Telekom left. Rudy Pevenage followed him as sporting director . Ullrich scored his first victory for Team Coast at Rund um Köln after a long solo trip.

However, the sponsor Coast had apparently taken on the signing of the 1997 Tour winner and had problems paying the professional cyclists' salaries. At the beginning of March, the team was therefore blocked by the UCI , the world cycling association . As a result, various drivers, including Alex Zülle, left the team. In May 2003, the UCI suspended the team again for lack of salaries. The operating company of the RSM team went bankrupt and the Coast team was dissolved.

Team Bianchi

Team Bianchi at the Germany Tour 2002

The team structure of Team Coast was taken over from the bankruptcy estate by the former Dutch professional cyclist Jacques Hanegraaf through his company Cycle BV. 19 of the 22 coast riders and some of the other staff switched to this successor team. Rudy Pevenage remained the sporting director. The team was named after the previous bike outfitter and now main sponsor, Team Bianchi . The UCI granted the new team a license and the ASO invited the team to the 2003 Tour de France .

The Tour de France was successful for the team: Ullrich was able to win the first individual time trial and fought a gripping battle for the tour victory with the American Lance Armstrong . The team's attempt to find more sponsors on the basis of these successes and thus to ensure the continued existence of the team turned out to be difficult. After Ullrich announced his return to the T-Mobile team in October 2003, Hanegraaf stated that the team should continue to exist in 2004; however, the team was disbanded.