Team DFL–Cyclingnews–Litespeed was a British professional cycling team that rode

UCI Continental Circuits The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle racing competitions which were introduced in 2005 by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) to expand cycling around the world. The five circuits (representing the continents of Africa, the ...

races.

2007 Season

The team leader for 2007 was Belgian

Nico Mattan Nico Mattan (born 17 July 1971) is a Belgian former road racing cyclist. His greatest achievement in cycling was winning the Gent–Wevelgem classic in 2005. In 2005 Mattan won the Gent–Wevelgem in a controversial way, as there were claims ...

and the squad included 2006 British champion Hamish Haynes, reigning Finnish National Time Trial champion Matti Helminen and English rider Daniel Lloyd.

Eric Vanderaerden Eric Vanderaerden (born 11 February 1962) is a Belgian retired road cyclist. He was a considerable talent, winning the prologue time trial of the Vuelta a España in his debut year of 1983. During the 1983 Tour de France he also won the prologue ...

was a

directeur sportif A ''directeur sportif'' (, ) is a person directing a cycling team during a road bicycle racing event. It is seen as the equivalent to a field manager in baseball, or a head coach in football. At professional level, a directeur sportif follows t ...

. In what was a disappointing season, Lloyd scored the team's best general classification result with his second-place overall finish at the

Tour of Qinghai Lake The Tour of Qinghai Lake is an annual professional road bicycle racing stage race held in the Qinghai province of China since 2002 and is named after Qinghai Lake. The race is sanctioned by the International Cycling Union (UCI) as a 2.HC race as ...

. Cameron Jennings won a stage of the Jayco Herald Sun Tour, Helminen retained the Finnish National Time Trial Championship and Jeremy Vennell was victorious on stages five and six of the Powernet Tour of Southland to give DFL four professional victories for the season. Mattan in particular had an underwhelming season, his only ranking points of the year coming via a 78th place finish at

Gent–Wevelgem Gent–Wevelgem, officially Gent–Wevelgem – In Flanders Fields, is a road bicycle racing, road cycling race in Belgium, held annually since 1934. It is one of the classic cycle races, classic races part of the Flemish Cycling Week, run in late ...

. The former Gent–Wevelgem and two-time Paris-Nice stage winner finished outside the top 2000 in the professional rider rankings and would retire at the end of the season. Daniel Lloyd was the highest rated member of the squad in 2007, finishing a creditable 329th in the end of season PCS rankings.

Team closure

In 2008 it wanted to become a professional continental team under the name Pedaltech-Cyclingnews and signed

Steffen Wesemann Steffen Wesemann (born 11 March 1971) is a Swiss-German former professional road racing cyclist, son of the cyclist Wolfgang Wesemann. He competed in the individual road race at the 1992 Summer Olympics. Wesemann most recently rode for the pr ...

and

Bas Giling Bastiaan "Bas" Giling (born 4 November 1982 in Alkmaar, North Holland) is a Dutch former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2005 and 2009. He rode in one Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tour, the 2006 Vuelta a España, fi ...

. It also had an agreement with

Marc Lotz Marc Lotz (born 19 October 1973 in Valkenburg) is a Dutch former racing cyclist. In July 2005 Lotz was suspended from for two years due to admitting to using erythropoietin (EPO), a performance-enhancing drug. Lotz reportedly took the substance ...

but Pedaltech signed two British professionals instead. Top performers Lloyd and Helminen left the team, joining and

Palmans–Cras Palmans was a Belgian professional road bicycle racing, road and cyclo-cross cycling team that existed from 1993 until 2010. The team underwent many different name changes throughout its existence, but was always sponsored by Palmans, an internati ...

respectively for 2008. The UCI did not give the team the professional continental licence. Potential sponsors pulled out, including bike supplier Museeuw Bicycles and Cyclingnews.com, after which the team was to be known as Pedaltech Pro Cycling Team. Then the team manager, who was its owner, announced they had secondary cancer and could not run the team. It collapsed.

Team roster

Former riders

Russell Downing Russell Downing (born 23 August 1978) is an English former professional cyclist, who rode competitively between 1999 and 2019 for numerous teams, such as and . He is the younger brother of fellow cyclist Dean Downing, and both brothers compete ...

(2006) - Former British Champion *

Matthew Wilson Matthew James Wilson (born 29 January 1987) is a British rally driver from Cockermouth in Cumbria. He is the son of M-Sport boss and former World Rally Championship driver Malcolm Wilson. Wilson competed in the WRC for the Stobart M-Sport For ...

(2001)

References

External links

Team History
on cyclingnews.com Defunct cycling teams based in the United Kingdom Cycling teams based in the United Kingdom Cycling teams established in 2001 Cycling teams disestablished in 2009 {{UK-sport-team-stub