PDM (cycling team)

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PDM-Concorde

Team information

UCI code

PDM

Based

Netherlands

Founded

1986

Disbanded

1992

Discipline(s)

Road

Status

Retired

PDM-Concorde also PDM-Ultima is former Dutch professional cycling team that existed from 1986 until the end of the 1992 season. During Spanish races, Gin-MG was co-sponsor and Cidona was co-sponsor in the 1991 Nissan Classic. The team was sponsored by Philips Dupont Magnetics, a joint venture between Electronics company Philips and chemical company DuPont. The team rode on and promoted Concorde cycles, an Italian cycling manufacturer.

1 History
2 Doping affair
3 Famous riders
4 Important Victories
5 References

[edit] History

Roy Schuiten was the team manager and Jan Gisbers was directeur sportif of the team in 1986. The following year, Jan Gisbers took over as the team manager a position he kept until 1992. Gisbers was joined by Piet van der Kruijs and Ferdi van den Haute. The team was successful in Classics and in stage races such as the Tour de France where the team had a rider second overall in the General Classification on two occasions in 1987 with Pedro Delgado and 1988 with Steven Rooks, also third overall with Erik Breukink in 1990 Tour de France. The team won the teams classification at the Tour in 1988 and 1989. PDM rider Gert-Jan Theunisse was sitting in second overall in the 1988 Tour de France battling former PDM teammate Pedro Delgado when Theunisse tested positive for Testosterone and received a ten minute penalty.^[1] During the 1991 Tour de France the entire team withdrew due to what was reported at the time as food poisoning^[2] In a 2008 TV documentary^[3]; team members and team doctor Wim Sanders explain how the cause was in fact careless storage of Intralipid, a nutritional aid with which the team members had been injected.^[4] The team continued for one more year, after which the sponsor retired from the sport and sold the team to Festina.

[edit] Doping affair

In November, 1997 Cyclingnews.com reported about an inquiry that had just been made public in The Netherlands.^[5]This inquiry appeared to reveal doping in the PDM cycling team. The doctor of the team from between 1990 and 1991 was Wim Sanders who was the centre of the investigation which was reported to have been initiated when the General Manager of the team, Manfred Krikke, called the FIOD (Fiscal Information and Investigation Service) to investigate the medical business of the team. It was said that Wim Sanders supplied anabolic steroids and EPO to the team and was responsible for the ‘intralipid affair’of the 1991 Tour de France.^[5] According to cyclingnews.com, 1990 was the height of the drug taking in the team and during this year, two riders had to stop with acute heart problems^[5]; whether this refers to stopping with professional cycling or performance enchaning drugs is unclear. Team manager Gisbers denied any knowledge of doping in the team.^[4]