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In 2006, Crédit Agricole captured the team classification at the Tour de Pologne. Thor Hushovd took stage wins and two days in the yellow jersey at the Tour de France, won the Gent-Wevelgem classic, and a stage win at the Vuelta a España.
Crédit Agricole is a French professional cycling team managed by Roger Legeay and sponsored by Crédit Agricole since 1997. Before 1997 the team was known as GAN. Since 2005, the team is one of the 20 teams that compete in the new UCI ProTour.
History
The Crédit Agricole team is the continuation of Roger Legeay's GAN team of the late 1980s and early 1990s, famous for the team in which Greg LeMond won his last Tour de France in 1990. LeMond credited his strong team support and tactics for bringing him his third victory in the Tour.
Upon LeMond's departure the Crédit Agricole team acquired British track sensation Chris Boardman, the prologue time trial specialist who won the prologues of the 1996 and 1998 Tours de France. The team then acquired young Australia track superstar Stuart O'Grady in the mid-1990s who won several Tour stages including a near-win of the Green Jersey in the 2000 Tour de France. O'Grady also held on to the Yellow Jersey for many days during that same tour. German rider Jens Voigt joined the team until the 2003 season, winning a Tour stage and spending a day in the yellow jersey also in the 2000 Tour.
The 2000 and 2001 seasons saw Americans Bobby Julich and Jonathan Vaughters in the team, making it the team with the most English speakers. The team also won the 2001 Tour de France team time trial in front of the ONCE and U.S. Postal. Julich and Vaughters left after only one season and two seasons respectively.
The 2003 season saw the emergence of Thor Hushovd as the main sprinter of the team, and at the end of 2003 both O'Grady and Voigt left for Cofidis and Team CSC respectively.
2005 has been a relatively successful season for the team. Pietro Caucchioli finished in the top ten of the Giro d'Italia and Christophe le Mevel took a breakaway stage win. In the 2005 Tour de France Christophe Moreau was the highest-placed French rider (11th) and Thor Hushovd secured the green jersey points classification.
In 2006, Crédit Agricole captured the team classification at the Tour de Pologne. Thor Hushovd took stage wins and two days in the yellow jersey at the Tour de France, won the Gent-Wevelgem classic, and a stage win at the Vuelta a España.
