Quick Step
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| Quick Step | ||
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| Team information | ||
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| UCI code | QST | |
| Based | .svg/22px-Flag_of_Belgium_(civil).svg.png){kind=small} Belgium |
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| Founded | 2003 | |
| Discipline(s) | Road | |
| Status | ProTour | |
| Key personnel | ||
| General manager | Patrick Lefevere | |
| Previous team name(s) | ||
| 2007 - ProTour 2006 - ProTour 2005 - ProTour 2004 - Div. I 2003 - Div. I |
Quick Step-Innergetic (QSI)) Quick Step-Innergetic (QSI)) Quick Step (QST) Quick Step-Davitamon (QSD) Quick Step-Davitamon (QSD) |
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Quick Step (UCI Team Code: QST) is a Belgian UCI ProTour cycling team led by team manager Patrick Lefevere. The sports directors are Alvaro Crespi, Luca Guercilena, Serge Parsani, Wilfried Peeters and Rik Van Slycke. The title sponsor Quick Step is a manufacturer of laminate flooring that is available in the United Kingdom, United States and Australia.
The new team was created with the name Quick Step-Davitamon in 2003 on top of the old Mapei, after their main sponsor retreated from road bicycle racing. The teams greatest victories has been Paolo Bettini winning the UCI Road World Cup in 2003 and 2004. In the 2005 UCI ProTour season, at which point the team was renamed Quick Step-Innergetic, the team won a large number of classics: Tom Boonen won Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix, Filippo Pozzato the HEW Cyclassics, and Paolo Bettini the Züri-Metzgete and the Giro di Lombardia. In late 2005 Tom Boonen won the UCI Road World Championships in Madrid which topped of a fantastic year for both Boonen and Quick Step.In 2006 Boonen retained the Ronde van Vlaanderen and wore the yellow jersey in the Tour de France and Filippo Pozzato won Milan-Sanremo. While Paolo Bettini won the World Cycling Championships and retained his Giro di Lombardia crown.This victory was an emotional one for Bettini who broke down crying at the finish having lost his brother two weeks before the race.
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[edit] Doping Accusations
On January 23, 2007, the Flemish newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws accused Patrick Lefevere and the entire Quick Step-Innergetic-team of having used doping systematically.[1] The team would have taken doping on instigation from Patrick Lefevere. The UCI declared on January 27, 2007 that there has never been a doping-system in the team. Between January 1, 2003 and December 31, 2006, the Quick Step-riders have been tested 321 times by eight controllers from five different countries. Never has there been a trace of doping.
Both Lefevere and all the riders on the Quick Step-Innergetic-team have sued the journalist and Het Laatste Nieuws with a claim of several millions of euros.
[edit] Major results
[edit] 2007
- Tour of Qatar: Team classification (team); General classification (Wilfried Cretskens); Points classification (Tom Boonen).
- Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne: 1st: Tom Boonen
- Dwars door Vlaanderen: 1st: Tom Boonen
- E3 Prijs Vlaanderen: 1st: Tom Boonen
- Tour de France:
- Points classification (Tom Boonen)
- 3 stage wins (2 by Tom Boonen and 1 by Gert Steegmans)
[edit] 2008
- Tour of Qatar: Team classification (team); General classification (Tom Boonen).
- Paris-Nice: Team classification; 3 stage wins
- Ronde van Vlaanderen: 1st: Stijn Devolder
- Paris-Roubaix: 1st: Tom Boonen
[edit] Team roster
As of February 2, 2008.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ Article on the doping accusations Retrieved on 17 April 2007
- ^ Quick Step (QST) - BEL Riders. uciprotour.com. UCI. Retrieved on 2008-02-02.
[edit] External links
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