Castorama was a French professional

cycling team A cycling team is a group of cycle sport, cyclists who join a team or are acquired and train together to compete in bicycle racing, bicycle races whether amateur or professional – and the supporting personnel. Cycling teams are most important i ...

that existed from 1990 to 1995 and was sponsored by the French DIY and home improvement retailer

Castorama Castorama () is a French retailer of DIY and home improvement tools and supplies, headquartered in Templemars, France, and is part of the British group Kingfisher plc, which has 101 stores in France and 90 in Poland. The company became a subsidia ...

History

The Castorama team traced back to a team that began in 1976 when former French cycling champion

Cyrille Guimard Cyrille Guimard (born 20 January 1947) is a French former professional road racing cyclist who became a directeur sportif and television commentator. Three of his riders, Bernard Hinault, Laurent Fignon, and Lucien Van Impe, won the Tour de Franc ...

retired from the sport and took over as the main

directeur sportif A ''directeur sportif'' ( French for sporting director, although the original French term is often used in English-language media; plural ''directeurs sportifs'') is a person directing a cycling team during a road bicycle racing event. It is se ...

of the Gitane-Campagnolo team. The Renault auto group bought out Gitane cycles and also took over sponsorship of the team making the

Renault-Elf-Gitane Renault () was a French professional cycling team that existed from 1978 to 1985. The team cycled on and promoted Gitane racing bikes. History The team was created in 1978 after the Renault auto group purchased the Gitane bicycle manufacturer a ...

team that dominated the sport from 1978 to 1984. At the end of 1985, Renault decided to retire from the sport so French co-operative

Système U Système U is a French symbol group retailers cooperative, comprising about eight hundred independent hypermarkets and supermarkets, headquartered in the Parc Tertiaire SILIC in Rungis, France France (), officially the French Re ...

took over sponsorship from 1986 to 1989 making the Système U-Gitane cycling team. During 1989 the team was called Super U-Raleigh-Fiat after one of the supermarkets owned by the

group and rider

Laurent Fignon Laurent Patrick Fignon (; 12 August 1960 – 31 August 2010) was a French professional road bicycle racer who won the Tour de France in 1983 and 1984 and the Giro d'Italia in 1989. He is former FICP World No. 1 in 1989. He nearly captured t ...

became the number one ranked rider in the sport with his wins in

Milan–San Remo Milan–San Remo (in Italian ''Milano-Sanremo''), also called "''The Spring classic''" or "''La Classicissima''", is an annual road cycling race between Milan and Sanremo, in Northwest Italy. With a distance of 298 km (~185.2 miles) it is t ...

Grand Prix des Nations The Grand Prix des Nations was an individual time trial An individual time trial (ITT) is a road bicycle race in which cyclists race alone against the clock (in French: ''contre la montre'' – literally "against the watch", in Italian: ''tappa ...

1989 Giro d'Italia The 1989 Giro d'Italia was the 72nd edition of the race. It started off in Taormina on 21 May with a flat stage that ended in Catania. The race concluded in Florence with a individual time trial on 11 June. Twenty-two teams entered the race ...

and a very close second in the

1989 Tour de France The 1989 Tour de France was the 76th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The race consisted of 21 stages and a prologue, over . It started on 1 July 1989 in Luxembourg before taking an anti-clockwise route through France ...

. In 1990

then took over the sponsorship of the team. For the first two years the team rode on Raleigh bikes but then rode on Cyrille Guimard bikes. Guimard was general manager from 1990 to 1995 while Jacques Cadion, Bernard Quilfren and Pascal Dubois were

s. Fignon left the team and Guimard in 1992. Guimard had been his longtime mentor.

Jacky Durand Jacky Durand (born 10 February 1967 in Laval, Mayenne) is a French former professional road bicycle racer. Durand had an attacking style, winning the Tour of Flanders in 1992 after a breakaway, and three stages in the Tour de France. Durand tu ...

gave the team one of its biggest successes in 1992 when he won the

Tour of Flanders The Tour of Flanders ( nl, Ronde van Vlaanderen), also known as ''De Ronde'' (''"The Tour"''), is an annual road cycling race held in Belgium every spring. The most important cycling race in Flanders, it is part of the UCI World Tour and organi ...

. Durand attacked (with four others) at 217 km to the finish where there were 14 hills and 6 sections of cobblestones to be crossed. It was said that one innovation that Guimard and Fignon introduced with the founding of the team is the formation of a holding company that controls the riders and sponsors' contracts. Prior to the introduction of this system, riders were often contracted directly with the sponsoring companies.

Major wins

* World Cyclo Cross Championships 1993 ( Arnould) * Cyclo Cross Championships 1990, 1993, 1994 * Road Race Championships 1992, 1993, 1994 * Time Trial Championships 1995 *

Critérium International The Critérium International was a two-day bicycle stage race held in France every spring from 1932 until 2016, typically the last weekend of March. It was formerly known as the Critérium National de la Route, first run in 1932. For many years ...

1990 *

Route du Sud The Route d'Occitanie is a road bicycle race with 4 stages held annually in Southern France. It was first held in 1977 and since 2005 it has been organised as a 2.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour. It is usually held a week before the Tour de France ...

1990 *

Tour de Luxembourg The Tour de Luxembourg is an annual stage race in professional road bicycle racing held in Luxembourg. The Tour de Luxembourg is classified as a 2.Pro race, the highest rating below the World Tour, by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), the ...

1990 * GP de Wallonne 1990 *

Tour du Haut Var The Tour du Haut Var ( en, Tour of the Haut Var) is an early-season two-day road bicycle race in the Var department region in the south of France. Until 2008 it was run as a one-day race, part of the UCI Europe Tour. In 2009, the race transformed ...

1990, 1992, 1994 *

Grand Prix d'Isbergues Grand may refer to: People with the name * Grand (surname) * Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor * Grand Mixer DXT, American turntablist * Grand Puba (born 1966), American rapper Places * Grand, Oklahoma * Grand, Vosges, village and commu ...

1990, 1991 *

Paris–Camembert Paris–Camembert (also Paris–Camembert Trophée Lepetit or Paris–Camembert Lepetit) is a semi classic held annually in April. Since 2005, the race is organized as a 1.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour. The route of the race has varied over th ...

1990, 1994 *

Grand Prix de Denain Grand Prix de Denain is a professional cycle road race held in Denain, France. For 10 years from 2005 the race was organized as a 1.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle racing competitions whi ...

1990, 1991 *

1992 *

Giro di Puglia The Giro di Puglia ( en, Tour of Apulia) was a road bicycle racing stage race A race stage, leg, or heat is a unit of a race that has been divided in several parts for the reason such as length of the distance to be covered, as in a multi-da ...

1992 *

Tour de Picardie The Tour de Picardie was a professional multi-stage cycle road race that was held between 1936 and 2016 in Picardy, France. In its last twelve editions, it was organised as a 2.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour The UCI Continental Circuits are a se ...

1992 *

Tour de l'Avenir Tour de l'Avenir ( en, Tour of the Future) is a French road bicycle racing stage race, which started in 1961 as a race similar to the Tour de France and over much of the same course but for amateurs and for semi-professionals known as independents ...

1993, 1995 *

Four Days of Dunkirk The Four Days of Dunkirk (french: Quatre Jours de Dunkerque) is road bicycle race around the Nord-Pas de Calais region of northern France. Despite the name of the race, since the addition of an individual time trial in 1963, the race has been h ...

1993 *

Regio-Tour International The Regio-Tour is a multi-stage road bicycle race held between France, Switzerland and Germany. It was first held in 1985 and since 2005 it has been organised as a 2.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour. Famous riders like Laurent Brochard, Jan Ullrich, ...

1994 *

Clásica de San Sebastián The Donostia-Donostia Klasikoa — Clásica San Sebastián-San Sebastián (San Sebastián Classic) is a one-day professional men's bicycle road race in northern Spain that has been held every summer since 1981 in San Sebastián. It is the mo ...

1994 * GP d'Ouverture 1994 *

Trophée des Grimpeurs The Trophée des Grimpeurs, called Polymultipliée until 1970, was a single-day road bicycle race held annually in August in the region of Val-d'Oise, France, between Argenteuil and Sannois. Between 1980 and 2002 it was a criterium. Since 2005, t ...

1995

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Castorama (Cycling Team) Defunct cycling teams based in France Cycling teams based in France Cycling teams established in 1990 Cycling teams disestablished in 1995