Castorama (cycling team)

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Castorama is a former French professional cycling team that existed from 1990 to 1995 and was sponsored by the French DIY and home improvement retailer Castorama. The Castorama team traced back to a team that began in 1976 when former French cycling champion Cyrille Guimard retired from the sport and took over as the main directeur sportif of the Gitane-Campagnolo team. The Renault auto group bought out Gitane cycles and also took over sponsorship of the team making the Renault-Elf-Gitane team that dominated the sport from 1978 to 1984. At the end of 1985, Renault decided to retire from the sport so French co-operative Système U took over sponsorship from 1986 to 1989 making the Système U-Gitane cycling team. During 1989 the team was called Super U-Raleigh-Fiat after one of the supermarkets owned by the Système U group and rider Laurent Fignon became the number one ranked rider in the sport with his wins in Milan-Sanremo, GP des Nations, 1989 Giro d'Italia and a very close second in the 1989 Tour de France. Castorama then took over the sponsorship of the team. For the first two years the team rode on Raleigh bikes^[1] but then rode on Cyrille Guimard bikes^[2] ^[3]. Guimard was general manager from 1990 to 1995 while Jacques Cadion, Bernard Quilfren and Pascal Dubois were directeur sportifs. Fignon left the team in 1992 and for the first time left Guimard who had been his mentor. Jacky Durand gave the team one of its biggest successes in 1992 when he won the Ronde van Vlaanderen. Durand attacked (with four others) at 217 km to the finish where there were 14 hills and 6 sections of cobblestones to be crossed.