The Linda McCartney Racing Team was a British professional

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 ...

team.

History

The team began in 1998 with

Linda McCartney Foods Linda McCartney Foods is a British food brand specializing in vegetarian and vegan food. Available in the UK, as well as Norway, Ireland, Austria, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, the range includes chilled and frozen meat analogues in ...

, maker of

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetarianism m ...

food, sponsoring vegetarian riders and staff. The company was started by Sir

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

's wife, Linda. Team success would promote vegetarianism and Linda McCartney Foods. The team was to compete in Britain before expanding to international events. It was initially composed of British riders with more experienced riders joining later to improve credentials for the UCI World Cup and the Grand Tours. It was the first British team to ride the Giro d'Italia but the increase in cost as the team and its commitments grew — Linda McCartney Foods did not continue sponsorship — led the team to disband in 2001 with reported debts of more than US$1m and a dispute with the UCI over riders' wages. In 2012, a British investigation was launched into the former team, with allegations that the management did not organise doping, but knew several riders used performance-enhancing drugs and turned a blind eye.

Notable riders

Íñigo Cuesta Íñigo Cuesta López de Castro (born 2 June 1969) is a Spanish former professional road bicycle racer, who now works as a directeur sportif for UCI Women's Continental Team . Career Born in Villarcayo de Merindad de Castilla la Vieja, Burgos, ...

Matt DeCanio Matt DeCanio (born April 5, 1977) is an American ex-professional racing cyclist. DeCanio is an outspoken critic of doping in the sport, and founded thStolen Undergroundanti-doping movement after voluntarily confessing to performance-enhancing dr ...

* Pascal Richard *

Max Sciandri Maximilian Sciandri (born 15 February 1967) is a retired British road racing cyclist of Italian descent. He competed as an Italian national up to February 1995, then took British citizenship. He won the bronze medal in the men's individual road ...

* Matt Stephens * Bradley Wiggins *

Charly Wegelius Charles "Charly" Wegelius (born 26 April 1978 in Espoo, Finland) is a British former professional road racing cyclist. Never a winner of a professional race individually, Wegelius nevertheless made a career out of being a reliable and strong ...

* David McKenzie *

Ciarán Power Ciarán Power (born 8 May 1976 in Waterford, Ireland) is a former professional racing cyclist, the first Irish cyclist to ride in a major tour since Stephen Roche in 1993. He is a member of the Irish Pezula Racing Team. Power turned profession ...

History

Notable riders

References

Further reading