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UCI Pro Tour
The UCI ProTour was a series of road bicycle races in Europe, Australia and Canada organised by the UCI (International Cycling Union). Created by Hein Verbruggen, former president of the UCI, it comprises a number of 'ProTour' cycling teams, each of whom are required to compete in every round of the series. It was initially the basis of a season long competition for rankings points, created for 2005 to replace the UCI Road World Cup series, which ended at the end of the 2004 season (although the World Cup did not include any stage races). The ProTour was the subject of continuing disputes involving the UCI, cycling teams, and the organizers of the world's most prominent bicycle races (most notably, the Grand Tours), and in 2009 and 2010 the ranking element of the ProTour was superseded by the UCI World Ranking. For 2011, the ProTour and World Ranking were fully merged into the UCI World Tour. ProTour status for teams – relabelled UCI ProTeams – will continue as th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Road Bicycle Racing
Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on Road surface, paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional sport, professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and spectators. The two most common competition formats are mass start events, where riders start simultaneously (though sometimes with a Handicapping, handicap) and race to a set finish point; and time trials, where individual time trial, individual riders or team time trial, teams race a course alone against the clock. Stage races or "tours" take multiple days, and consist of several mass-start or time-trial stages ridden consecutively. Professional racing originated in Western Europe, centred in France, Spain, Italy and the Low Countries. Since the mid-1980s, the sport has diversified, with races held at the professional, semi-professional and amateur levels, worldwide. The sport is governed by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI). As w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
IShares
iShares is a collection of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) managed by BlackRock, which acquired the brand and business from Barclays in 2009. The first iShares ETFs were known as World Equity Benchmark Shares (WEBS) but have since been rebranded. Most iShares funds track a bond or stock market index, although some are actively managed. Stock exchanges listing iShares funds include the London Stock Exchange, American Stock Exchange, New York Stock Exchange, BATS Exchange, Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Mexican Stock Exchange, Toronto Stock Exchange, Australian Securities Exchange, B³ Brasil Bolsa Balcão and a number of European and Asian stock exchanges. iShares is the largest issuer of ETFs in the US and globally. History In 1993, State Street, in cooperation with American Stock Exchange, launched Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts () (now the 'SPDR S&P 500'), which was traded in real time and tracked the S&P 500 index. This was the first ETF to trade in the United States ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Formula One
Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, which became the FIA Formula One World Championship in 1981, has been one of the premier forms of racing around the world since its inaugural season in 1950. The word ''formula'' in the name refers to the set of rules to which all participants' cars must conform. A Formula One season consists of a series of races, known as ''Grands Prix'', which take place worldwide on both purpose-built circuits and closed public roads. A points system is used at Grands Prix to determine two annual World Championships: one for drivers, the other for constructors. Each driver must hold a valid Super Licence, the highest class of racing licence issued by the FIA. The races must run on tracks graded "1" (formerly "A"), the highest grade-rating issued ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cofidis (cycling Team)
Cofidis Solutions Crédits () 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 the team competed as a UCI Professional Continental team. The team joined the UCI World Tour for the 2020 season. History Cyrille Guimard started the team in 1996 with backing from François Migraine, the chief executive of Cofidis. An early acquisition was Lance Armstrong, formerly of Motorola Cycling Team. Armstrong was dropped because of his cancer and another American, Bobby Julich, became leader for stage races. Julich's place in the top three of the 1998 Tour de France brought the team to the spotlight, and Frank ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bbox Bouygues Telecom
Team TotalEnergies () is a professional road bicycle racing team that competes as a UCI ProTeam in UCI Continental Circuits races, and UCI World Tour races when invited as a ''wild card'' entry. In previous years, the team was known as Brioches La Boulangère, Bonjour, Bouygues Télécom, and Bbox Bouygues Telecom and Europcar. The 2015 season was the last under the sponsorship of Europcar; the team has been sponsored by Direct Énergie since 2016. Beginnings The team was founded in 1984 as Système U. The team disbanded in 1985 but returned in 1986 under new management. Cyrille Guimard became the directeur sportif, bringing his protégé Laurent Fignon. A change of sponsor in 1990 renamed the team Castorama. In 1992 Guimard became manager of the team. In 1995, Jean-René Bernaudeau, a former professional racer, became director of the team. From 1996 to 1999, the team withdrew from top-level competition. Bernaudeau set up a development team in the Vendée region called Vendée ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Team Katusha
A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interdependent with respect to information, resources, knowledge and skills and who seek to combine their efforts to achieve a common goal". A group does not necessarily constitute a team. Teams normally have members with complementary skills and generate synergy through a coordinated effort which allows each member to maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses. Naresh Jain (2009) claims: Team members need to learn how to help one another, help other team members realize their true potential, and create an environment that allows everyone to go beyond their limitations. While academic research on teams and teamwork has grown consistently and has shown a sharp increase over the past recent 40 years, the societal diffusion of teams and teamwork actually follow ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Team Gerolsteiner
Gerolsteiner () was a German road bicycle racing team in the UCI ProTour. It was sponsored by the mineral water company Gerolsteiner Brunnen and Specialized. History The team was founded in 1997 as Schauff Oeschelbronn professional cycling team by team manager Hans-Michael Holczer and sports directors Rolf Gölz and Christian Henn. In 1999 Gerolsteiner who had previously sponsored the Cologne Cycling Team in 1998 became the title sponsors. The contract with Georg Totschnig in 2001 helped make the team enter Division I. In 2003 the team participated in the Tour de France for the first time. The leader for several seasons was Georg Totschnig, who recorded top 10 finishes in the Tour de France and was an excellent climber. In 2005, Totschnig won stage 14 of the Tour, showing his skill on the 15 km long climb up the Port de Pailhères (2000m at 8.2%). He was overfilled with emotion, after becoming the first Austrian to win a tour stage since Max Bulla in 1931, who won 3 s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crédit Agricole (cycling Team)
Crédit Agricole () was a French professional cycling team managed by Roger Legeay. From 1998 to 2008, the team was sponsored by the French bank Crédit Agricole. Prior to 1997, the team was known as Vêtements Z-Peugeot (1987), Z-Peugeot (1988–89), Z (1990–92) and GAN (1993–98). In 1990, the team's leading cyclist, the American Greg LeMond, won the Tour de France. The team also won the team title at the Tour de France that year. Crédit Agricole announced that they would cease to sponsor the team after 2008, and the team was subsequently disbanded. History The team was born out of the Peugeot cycling team, which existed from the early 1900s to 1986. Roger Legeay was the Peugeot team's last manager, and he created Vêtements Z-Peugeot in 1987 (taking its name from the children's clothing brand Z and the car manufacturer Peugeot). That year, the team made its appearance at the Tour de France, with Frenchman Pascal Simon as its leading cyclist. In 1988, under the name of Z-P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Discovery Channel (cycling)
U.S. Postal Service Pro Cycling Team was a United States-based professional road bicycle racing team. On June 15, 2004, the Discovery Channel signed a deal to become sponsor of the team for the 2004–2007 seasons and its name changed to Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team (). From 2005 until 2007, the team was one of the 20 teams that competed in the new UCI ProTour. As part of the sponsorship deal, Lance Armstrong, the team's undisputed leader, provided on-air appearances for the Discovery Networks TV channels. The deal did not affect the rights of secondary sponsor OLN, now known as NBC Sports Network in the US, to air major cycling events such as the Tour de France, although the two channels are competitors. The team was directed by Belgian Johan Bruyneel, who also managed U.S. Postal. The chief mechanic was Julien DeVries. The team was co-owned by Tailwind Sports Corp. of San Francisco and Capital Sports & Entertainment of Austin, Texas. On February 10, 2007, Discovery Cha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liberty Seguros-Würth Team
ONCE cycling team, () also known as Liberty Seguros, Liberty Seguros–Würth and in succession in its final year, Astana–Würth and Astana was a Spanish cycling team. It competed in the UCI ProTour circuit. On 25 May 2006, Liberty Mutual ("seguros" means "insurance" in Spanish) pulled out of primary sponsorship due to a doping scandal involving the directeur sportif, Manolo Saiz. On 2 June 2006, the team acquired a primary sponsor named Astana, after the capital of Kazakhstan. Würth was co-sponsor until 3 July 2006, withdrawing at the end of the 2006 Tour de France, in which didn't compet At the end of the season, Astana also withdrew due to the non-participation in the Tour. On 16 December 2006, the UCI withdrew the ProTour licence of Saiz's company, Active Ba [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manolo Saiz
Manuel "Manolo" Saiz Balbás (born 16 October 1959 in Torrelavega, Cantabria) is the former team manager of one of the most successful Spanish professional road bicycle racing teams, first called Team ONCE, then Liberty Seguros-Würth, Astana-Würth, and lastly Astana Team. Saiz was a hands-on manager and directeur sportif. He consolidated his riders' training and hired staff to manage their coaching and racing. Despite not having a racing background, he nurtured ONCE to become one of the biggest teams. His riders included Frenchman Laurent Jalabert and Swiss Alex Zülle; both dominated the Vuelta a España, each winning the general and other classifications. In 1995 Jalabert achieved the trifecta by winning the general classification along with the points and King of the Mountains. Saiz's next riders included Spaniard Abraham Olano, Igor González de Galdeano and Joseba Beloki. ONCE dominated team time trials in the Tour de France. At the end of the 2003 ONCE discontinued s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
