Blog - Team presentation 2008

Team presentation Team High Road cycling team 2008

Two days before the start of the Tour of California the American Team High Road was officially presented on Friday night (2 PM local time). Phil Liggett, who presents cycling races on TV for Versus^* and ITV, took up the role of the local Daniel Mangeas in Palo Alto in California (the place where the Tour of California starts). Team High Road is the team which was born in 2008 from the former T-Mobile team.

When T-Mobile announced it would no longer sponsor the German team, team manager Bob Stapleton decided to continue anyway, even without a main sponsor (at least temporarily). The team has now become American and is called Team High Road. In Germany the team is still connected to Neuer Strassen Sport, but it's now officially based in San Luis Obispo in California (between Los Angeles and San Francisco) in the United States under the name ...

Team presentation Française des Jeux cycling team 2008

The French cycling team Française des Jeux for 2008 has been presented last Thursday. While the team sticks to an approach with mainly young riders its sponsor takes a chance on future successes with the good news they announced during the presentation!

With an average age of 25 years and 16 of the 27 riders who are 25 years or younger, the French team becomes the youngest ProTour team in 2008. The team seems to stick to its principles and to answer its sponsor's wish: the composition of the team has been done while thinking "young" because - apart from Ludovic Auger, Carlos Da Cruz, Christophe Detilloux and Thierry Marichal who left the team because they ended their carreer at the end of last season and from Johan Lindgren who stops cycling after one year as professional - the contracts with Bradley McGee (soon 32; went to Team CSC) and Ian McLeod (27; went back to South-Africa to join MTN Cycling) have not been continued.
Furthermore, the young French ride ...

Team presentation AG2R La Mondiale cycling team 2008

The AG2R La Mondiale 2008 cycling team had its official presentation today. The team, based in Chambéry, chose the (future) new head office of its main sponsor in the middle of Paris as the ideal place for this presentation and I was invited.

Daniel Mangeas, the official speaker in the Tour de France, also took up his role as speaker for this presentation (as for the presentation of almost all French teams or teams with a French sponsor) and first of all gave the floor to Arnaud Renaudin, General Manager for AG2R La Mondiale. Mister Renaudin explained that the team's presentation was also more or less a presentation of the new group since this was the first public event under the name of the group which was created from the merger between AG2R Prévoyance and La Mondiale on 16 January.

Yvon Breton, Director of AG2R La Mondiale, then took the floor to explain the insurer's activities in cycling. Indeed the company does not only sponsor the cycling team ...

Team presentation Gerolsteiner cycling team 2008

After Cofidis, Rabobank, Caisse d'Epargne, Milram, Bouygues Telecom, Saunier Duval-Scott, Liquigas, Euskaltel-Euskadi, ... today it was Gerolsteiner's turn to present the cycling team for 2008 for the German mineral water brand.

Gerolsteiner already announced in September that - as agreed in the contract between the mineral water supplier and the cycling team - 2008 will be the last cycling season in which Gerolsteiner will be visible in the pack. Gerolsteiner ...

Team presentation Saunier Duval-Scott cycling team 2008

Yesterday the Saunier Duval-Scott cycling team for 2008 was presented in the M.A. Nazaríes Hotel in Grenada in Spain where the 27 riders were at a training camp since last Tuesday. A young team with a new co-sponsor was presented in the hotel which was chosen by the team for the first training of the new year.

Where the French teams call on the official Tour de France speaker Daniel Mangeas, Saunier Duval-Scott -as a Spanish team- has asked the Vuelta a España's official speaker, Juan Mari Guajardo, for the team presentation.

The new co-sponsor ... and the new outfit

Team presentation Bouygues Telecom cycling team 2008

Just like Team Milram, Bouygues Telecom yesterday presented its team for the 2008 season. At the head office of the French mobile operator (and maybe soon Internet service provider?) in Boulogne-Billancourt, the most important news was that Bouygues has extended its contract as main sponsor of the team.

Bouygues Telecom indeed used this occasion to announce that it will continue to sponsor the team until the end of 2010 (the team's website says 2011 but I think that's a mistake), which means the sponsor contract is extended to a total of 5 years. Emmanuel Forest, director of the telecom company, announced the good news by saying two years is a good duration for a sponsor contract and it allows contractual relationships with new riders. He also said he and the team are think of a co-sponsorship -probably with a foreign sponsor.

The team's goals

Team presentation Milram cycling team 2008

Today the German team Team Milram presented its team for 2008.

New for the team are especially a new organisation, a new base for the team in Dortmund, a younger team, new goals and an even more important anti-doping programme.

Gerry van Gerwen, the new general manager of the team said: I am happy to present a German team that, with it's high number of young riders, offers a high potential for the future. Team MILRAM's new organisation stands for the new way in cycling.

Since the Italian company Ciclosport was sold to VeloCity GmbH Team Milram has moved to the base of its new owner in Dortmund. To allow a closer contact and a better co-operation with the riders Van Gerwen wants the riders to come to Dortmund and its vicinity to live and train there.

With the change of its owner the team has become more German - 12 of its 27 riders are German - and its German sponsor Milram, milk and milk products brand, definitely likes that. ...

Team presentation Caisse d'Epargne cycling team 2008 [UPDATE + official team picture]

Team presentation Rabobank cycling team 2008

While Theo Bos was doing his rounds during the Six days in Rotterdam, the Rabobank Pro Team 2008 was presented in the same city by Humberto Tan (a Dutch sports presenter on TV).
A few new riders, a new organisation, the riders board and the 'rider's régisseur' are some of the new things.

The team

Scoop: the new site for the Cofidis cycling team [UPDATE 8PM]

This article has not been translated in English ... you can read the French version below or the Dutch version by clicking here!

Comme le disait déjà Pascal dans un commentaire le site web 2008 de l'équipe cycliste Cofidis ouvrira ses portes aux internautes demain selon l'annonce qu'on voit sur le site.

Par contre, en fouillant un tout petit peu (même pas beaucoup !) on le trouve déjà en avant-première ;-) ...

En effet, je vous donne en avant-première l'accès au site web de l'équipe cycliste Cofidis : vous trouverez ce nouveau site sur www.equipe-cofidis.com/2008.

UPDATE 8 janvier 2008 : le site est désormais officiellement en ligne sur ...