Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears

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The Illes Balears team car, with Pinarello Opera bikes on top, with Campagnolo parts.

Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears (UCI Team Code: CEI) is professional road bicycle racing team which participates in the UCI ProTour. The team traces its history back to the Banesto (and later iBanesto.com) of 5-time Tour de France winner Miguel Indurain, 2-time winner of Vuelta a España Alex Zülle and legendary climber José Maria Jiménez. After the end of ibanesto.com's sponsorship in 2003, the Illes Balears (Balearic Islands) tourism board took over sponsorship of the team.

The team traditionally has a strong Basque element, with general manager Jose Miguel Echavarri and directeurs sportif Usebio Unzue Labiano, Jose Luis Jaimerena and Alfonso Galilea Zurbano. Indeed, Indurain himself was the most famous Basque cyclist. However, it is nowhere as Basque as Euskaltel-Euskadi, which fields an all-Basque team. The team traditionally uses Pinarello bikes with Campagnolo parts (Pinarello supplied the team with "Paris FP Carbon" bicycles for the 2006 Tour de France).

The team fielded a number of strong contenders in the 2005 Tour de France including Francisco Mancebo (former National Champion of Spain), Alejandro Valverde (2004 Tour de France white jersey winner), Vladimir Karpets and sprinter Isaac Gálvez. Mancebo produced the best results finishing fourth overall in the General Classification.

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 Sio, 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.^[1]

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.^[2] 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."^[3]

1 Prominent riders
2 2006 team
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Prominent riders

Alejandro Valverde in the 2005 edition of the Tour de France.

Brard signs in at the 2006 Tour de France

Alejandro Valverde, born 1980, Spain
Francisco Mancebo, born 1976, Spain, moved to AG2R Prévoyance (2006)
Óscar Pereiro Sio, born 1977, Spain, moved from Phonak (2006)

[edit] 2006 team

Name	Birthdate	Nationality	2005 Team
David Arroyo	07-01-1980	Spain
Eric Berthou	23/01/1980	France
Florent Brard	07/02/1976	France	Agritubel
José Luis Carrasco Gamiz	27-04-1982	Spain
Antonio Colom Mas	11-05-1978	Spain
Imanol Erviti	15-11-1983	Spain
Sergio Escobar Roure	22-09-1974	Spain
Marco Fertonani	08-07-1976	Italy	Domina Vacanze
Isaac Gálvez	20-05-1975	Spain
José Vicente Garcia Acosta	04-08-1972	Spain
José Iván Gutiérrez	27-11-1978	Spain
Joan Horrach Rippoll	27-03-1974	Spain
José Cayetano Julia Cegarra	01-07-1979	Spain
Vladimir Karpets	20-09-1980	Russia
Pablo Lastras García	20-01-1976	Spain
Iker Leonet Iza	10-12-1983	Spain
Alexei Markov	26-05-1979	Russia	Milaneza
Francisco Perez Sanchez	22.07.1978	Spain
Óscar Pereiro Sio	03-08-1977	Spain	Phonak
Nicolas Portal	23/04/1979	France	AG2R Prévoyance
Mikel Pradera	06-03-1975	Spain
Vicente Reynes Mimo	30-07-1981	Spain
Joaquin Rodriguez	12.05.1979	Spain	Saunier Duval-Prodir
Alejandro Valverde	25-04-1980	Spain
Constantino Zaballa	15.05.1978	Spain	Saunier Duval-Prodir
Xabier Zandio	17-03-1977	Spain