Cofidis (cycling team)

Cofidis Solutions Crédits

Team information
UCI code	COF
Registered	France
Founded	1997 (1997)
Discipline	Road
Status	UCI Professional Continental
Bicycles	Orbea
Website	Team home page
Key personnel
General manager	Yvon Sanquer
Team name history
1997–present	Cofidis
Jersey

Cofidis Solutions Crédits (UCI team code: COF) is a French professional road bicycle racing team sponsored by a money-lending company, Cofidis. It was started in 1996 by Cyrille Guimard the former manager of Bernard Hinault, Greg LeMond and Laurent Fignon of the Renault-Elf-Gitane team of the 1980s. The team's sponsor has supported the team despite repeated problems such as doping scandals. After it was part of the UCI ProTour for the ProTour's first five seasons, from 2010 on the team competes as a UCI Professional Continental team.

History

Cyrille Guimard started the team in 1996 with backing from Migraine. An acquisition was Lance Armstrong, formerly of Motorola Cycling Team. Armstrong was dropped^[1] because of his cancer and another American, Bobby Julich, became leader for stage races. Julich's place in the first three of the 1998 Tour de France brought the team to the spotlight, and Frank Vandenbroucke brought further results in classics. That year, Cofidis finished as the Top Team in the Tour.

Years of drought followed as Julich and Vandenbroucke switched teams. Vandenbroucke's Belgian compatriots, Nico Mattan, Chris Peers, Peter Farazijn, and Jo Planckaert, stayed on but were criticised for inconsistent performance. Cofidis, on Migraine demand, began paying riders by results, judged by the points they won in a season-long competition run by the Union Cycliste Internationale. Belgian riders criticised the policy, saying it would lead riders to compete unadventurously to be sure of good placings at the finish. They debated the issue publicly with the manager, Alain Bondue, and left.

Cofidis rider Alexandre Usov, of Belarus, in the 2009 Cofidis racing kit at the 2009 Tour Down Under

David Millar raised the team's profile by winning the prologue of the 2000 Tour de France, taking leadership of the team. Millar criticized the points system and the team relented.

In 2004 Cofidis had three world champions – Igor Astarloa on the road, David Millar in the individual time trial and Laurent Gané on the track. However, a doping scandal involving Millar and other riders led them to stop racing until it was resolved. Astarloa left the team. The investigation decided that doping was by individual riders and that the team was not involved. However, David Millar has since suggested otherwise, in a strongly worded interview with the BBC.^[2] The team then returned to competition for the 2004 Tour de France, in which Stuart O'Grady and David Moncoutié won stages, Moncoutié's on Bastille Day .

Moncoutié won on Bastille day again in the 2005 Tour de France – the only French stage win – with O'Grady's help. However, a new signing, Sylvain Chavanel failed to win a stage or to make a strong impression .

O'Grady and Matthew White left in 2006. Cédric Vasseur – often the road captain – also left. Early victory in Classic Haribo by Arnaud Coyot showed the team still had firepower. Cofidis won the first stage of the 2006 Tour de France with Jimmy Casper, in a chaotic sprint.

For 2007 the team signed Belgians Nick Nuyens and Kevin De Weert from Quick Step-Innergetic.

On 25 July 2007 Cofidis rider Christian Moreni failed his doping test after the 11th stage of the Tour de France. His blood contained traces of testosterone. Moreni acknowledged doping. The team withdrew from the Tour.^[3]

On 29 September 2009, the UCI ProTour decided not to renew the ProTour licenses of Cofidis and Bbox Bouygues Telecom, due to poor results. ^[4]

In 2012, the team received a wildcard invitation to the Tour de France, along with three other French-registered teams.^[5]

On 10 July 2012, the first rest day in the 2012 Tour de France, French police raided the Cofidis team hotel, arresting French rider Remy Di Gregorio^[6] on suspicion of doping.^[7]

2013 Paris - Roubaix, Forest of Arenberg

For the 2015 season the team announced it had signed 2014 Giro d'Italia Points classification winner, Nacer Bouhanni along with; Dominique Rollin, Geoffrey Soupe and Steve Chainel^[8]

Team roster

As of 1 January 2015.

Rider Date of birth  Jonas Ahlstrand (SWE) (1990-02-16) 16 February 1990  Yoann Bagot (FRA) (1987-09-06) 6 September 1987  Nacer Bouhanni (FRA) (1990-07-25) 25 July 1990  Steve Chainel (FRA) (1983-09-06) 6 September 1983  Loïc Chetout (FRA) (1992-09-23) 23 September 1992  Nicolas Edet (FRA) (1987-12-02) 2 December 1987  Romain Hardy (FRA) (1988-08-24) 24 August 1988  Gert Jõeäär (EST) (1987-07-09) 9 July 1987  Christophe Laporte (FRA) (1992-12-11) 11 December 1992  Cyril Lemoine (FRA) (1983-03-03) 3 March 1983  Luis Ángel Maté (ESP) (1984-03-23) 23 March 1984  Rudy Molard (FRA) (1989-09-17) 17 September 1989  Daniel Navarro (ESP) (1983-07-08) 8 July 1983

Rider Date of birth  Adrien Petit (FRA) (1990-09-26) 26 September 1990  Dominique Rollin (CAN) (1982-10-29) 29 October 1982  Stéphane Rossetto (FRA) (1987-04-06) 6 April 1987  Florian Sénéchal (FRA) (1993-07-10) 10 July 1993  Julien Simon (FRA) (1985-10-04) 4 October 1985  Geoffrey Soupe (FRA) (1988-03-22) 22 March 1988  Anthony Turgis (FRA) (1994-05-16) 16 May 1994  Kenneth Vanbilsen (BEL) (1990-06-01) 1 June 1990  Michael Van Staeyen (BEL) (1988-08-13) 13 August 1988  Clément Venturini (FRA) (1993-10-16) 16 October 1993  Louis Verhelst (BEL) (1990-08-28) 28 August 1990  Romain Zingle (BEL) (1987-01-29) 29 January 1987

Major results

National Champions

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cofidis.

• List of teams and cyclists in the 2008 Tour de France
• 2008 Tour de France
• Tour de France

References

External links

• Official website