Bouygues Télécom (cycling team)

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Bouygues Télécom (UCI Team Code: BTL) is a professional road bicycle racing team that competes on the UCI ProTour. It was formerly known as Brioches La Boulangère and Bonjour.

1 History
2 Current formation
3 2007 ProTeam
- 3.1 Major results
- 3.2 Team roster
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

The team was founded in 1984 under the name of System U. The team disbanded in 1985 but returned in 1986 under new management. Legendary coach Cyrille Guimard became the directeur sportif, bringing aboard his protégé Laurent Fignon who nearly won the 1989 edition of the Tour de France. Due to a change of principal sponsor in 1990, the team takes the name of Castorama.

In 1992 Cyrille Guimard became the manager of the team, and Quilfen takes over the role of directeur sportif. In 1995, Jean-Rene Bernardeau, a former professional racer, becomes director of the team. From 1996 to 1999, the team withdrew from top level professional competition and instead focused on its role as a development team: Bernaudeau then devotes himself to set up a structure of formation in the Vendée region called Vendée U which was primarily an elite-level amateur team.

[edit] Current formation

In 2000, the team again became a professional team Bonjour, still under the control of the sporting director Jean-Rene Bernardeau. In 2003, the team becomes "Brioches La Boulangère", then "Bouygues Télécom" in 2005. The amateur team Vendée U is still affiliated with the current professional team, and acts as a feeder team from which the professional team recruits its riders.

As Bonjour and Brioches La Boulangère the team gained prominence with promising young stars Fabrice Salanson, Thomas Voeckler and Sylvain Chavanel. Salanson's untimely death due to heart disease in 2003 was a blow to the team. However, Voeckler wore the Maillot jaune for 10 days in the 2004 Tour de France while wearing the French National Champion jersey and became a national hero. The team competes mainly in French races and has had a near-monopoly of the French National Championship for several years. Chavanel left the team in the 2005 season to join Cofidis.

[edit] 2007 ProTeam

[edit] Major results

1st, Young Rider Classification, Tour of Qatar, Alexandre Pichot

[edit] Team roster

As of December 30, 2006.^[1]

	Rider	Date of Birth
	Julien Belgy	May 6, 1983 (age 23)
	Giovanni Bernaudeau	August 25, 1983 (age 23)
	Olivier Bonnaire	March 2, 1983 (age 24)
	Franck Bouyer	March 17, 1974 (age 33)
	Laurent Brochard	March 26, 1968 (age 39)
	Dimitri Champion	September 6, 1983 (age 23)
	Mathieu Claude	March 17, 1983 (age 24)
	Stef Clement	September 24, 1982 (age 24)
	Aurélien Clerc	August 26, 1979 (age 27)
	Nicolas Crosbie	April 2, 1980 (age 26)
	Pierre Drancourt	May 10, 1982 (age 24)
	Pierrick Fédrigo	November 30, 1978 (age 28)
	Andy Flickinger	November 4, 1978 (age 28)
	Xavier Florencio	December 26, 1979 (age 27)
	Yohann Gene	June 25, 1981 (age 25)

	Rider	Date of Birth
	Anthony Geslin	June 9, 1980 (age 26)
	Saïd Haddou	November 23, 1982 (age 24)
	Vincent Jerome	November 26, 1984 (age 22)
	Arnaud Labbe	November 3, 1976 (age 30)
	Yoann Le Boulanger	November 4, 1975 (age 31)
	Laurent Lefevre	July 2, 1976 (age 30)
	Rony Martias	August 4, 1980 (age 26)
	Alexandre Pichot	January 6, 1983 (age 24)
	Jérôme Pineau	January 2, 1980 (age 27)
	Erki Pütsep	May 25, 1976 (age 30)
	Franck Renier	April 11, 1974 (age 32)
	Didier Rous	September 18, 1970 (age 36)
	Matthieu Sprick	September 29, 1981 (age 25)
	Johann Tschopp	July 1, 1982 (age 24)
	Thomas Voeckler	June 22, 1979 (age 27)