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 from 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 ), 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
2000 Grand Prix Pino Cerami, Jan Bratkowski Stage 12 Tour de Langkawi, Jan Bratkowski
2001 Stage 4 Paris - Nice, Alex Zülle
2002
2003 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 Name Date of birth NationalityStefan Adamsson 03.01.1978 Daniel Becke 12.03.1978 Ángel Casero 27.09.1972 Félix García Casas 29.12.1968 Aitor Garmendia 03.03.1968 Fabrizio Guidi 13.04.1972 André Korff 04.06.1973 Francisco José Lara Ruiz 25.02.1977 Thomas Liese 10.08.1968 David Plaza Romero 03.07.1970 Steffen Radochla 19.10.1979 Thorsten Rund 25.02.1976 Raphael Schweda 17.04.1976 Tobias Steinhauser 27.01.1972 Jan Ullrich 02.12.1973 Malte Urban 14.12.1974 Christoph Von Kleinsorgen 14.07.1980 Thorsten Wilhelms 31.07.1969
References