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Team Bianchi

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Team Bianchi
Team information
UCI codeCOA (2000-2003)
TBI (2003)
RegisteredGermany
Founded2000 (2000)
Disbanded2003 (2003)
Discipline(s)Road
BicyclesBianchi
Team name history
2000
2001
2002–2003
2003
Team Coast
Team Coast–Buffalo
Team Coast
Team Bianchi

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[1] and Bianchi took over the team and the role of title sponsor.[2] Coast had recently signed Jan Ullrich following his departure from Team 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 upstage Alexander 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 and 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.

Major wins

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2000

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Grand Prix Pino Cerami, Jan Bratkowski
Stage 12 Tour de Langkawi, Jan Bratkowski

2001

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Stage 4 Paris - Nice, Alex Zülle

2002

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2003

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Profronde Stiphout, Jan Ullrich
Rund um Köln, Jan Ullrich
Stage 1b International Niedersachsen-Rundfahrt, Thorsten Wilhelms
Stage 1 Bayern-Rundfahrt, Thomas Liese
Stage 1 Tour of Austria, Steffen Radochla
Stage 12 Tour de France, Jan Ullrich

Notable riders

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Name Date of birth Nationality
Stefan Adamsson 03.01.1978  Sweden
Daniel Becke 12.03.1978  Germany
Ángel Casero 27.09.1972  Spain
Félix García Casas 29.12.1968  Spain
Aitor Garmendia 03.03.1968  Spain
Fabrizio Guidi 13.04.1972  Italy
André Korff 04.06.1973  Germany
Francisco José Lara Ruiz 25.02.1977  Spain
Thomas Liese 10.08.1968  Germany
David Plaza Romero 03.07.1970  Spain
Steffen Radochla 19.10.1979  Germany
Thorsten Rund 25.02.1976  Germany
Raphael Schweda 17.04.1976  Germany
Tobias Steinhauser 27.01.1972  Germany
Jan Ullrich 02.12.1973  Germany
Malte Urban 14.12.1974  Germany
Christoph Von Kleinsorgen 14.07.1980  Germany
Thorsten Wilhelms 31.07.1969  Germany

References

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  1. ^ "Team Coast suspended". Eurosport. 6 March 2003. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  2. ^ "www.cyclingnews.com news and analysis". autobus.cyclingnews.com. 2003. Retrieved 2 April 2022.