Monday, March 7, 2011

Team Bianchi was a makeshift team that was put together from the remnants of the Coast team in time for the 2003 Tour de France.

Team Coast had been unable to pay the salaries of their riders and Bianchi took over the team and the role of title sponsor. Coast had recently signed Jan Ullrich following his departure fromTeam Telekom after his drunk driving and amphetamine use. During the 2003 tour while riding for Bianchi, Ullrich placed second to Lance Armstrong by just 61 seconds, his closest ever margin in any of Armstrong's seven victorious years. In the process, Ullrich also managed to upstageAlexander Vinokourov, Telekom's highest-placed rider, who finished third.

Team Bianchi had planned to continue on as a professional road racing team. However, Ullrich's return to his former team Telekom (later T-Mobile, now HTC-Highroad), as well as the departure of Ángel Casero led to the demise of Team Bianchi as they now lacked the star power necessary to justify a top tier team.


Riders

NameDate of birthNationality
Stefan Adamsson03.01.1978 Sweden
Daniel Becke12.03.1978 Germany
Ángel Casero27.09.1972 Spain
Felix García Casas29.12.1968 Spain
Aitor Garmendia Arbilla03.03.1968 Spain
Fabrizio Guidi13.04.1972 Italy
André Korff04.06.1973 Germany
Francisco Jose Lara Ruiz25.02.1977 Spain
Thomas Liese10.08.1968 Germany
David Plaza Romero03.07.1970 Spain
Steffen Radochla19.10.1979 Germany
Thorsten Rund25.02.1976 Germany
Raphael Schweda17.04.1976 Germany
Tobias Steinhauser27.01.1972 Germany
Jan Ullrich02.12.1973 Germany
Malte Urban14.12.1974 Germany
Christoph Von Kleinsorgen14.07.1980 Germany
Thorsten Wilhelms31.07.1969 Germany

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