5 Professional Teams That Have Shaped Road Cycling

No rider, no matter how powerful, can be successful at the top level without the support of a strong team. We've had a look at the 5 teams that have shaped the sport of cycling through their dominance.

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TEAM SKY
Founded in 2010 with lofty ambitions of winning Grand Tours, Team Sky have been particularly influential in what is arguably the biggest, and definitely the most watched race in the cycling calendar, the Tour de France.

US POSTAL
In the early to mid 2000s, US Postal dominated the Tour de France, and at the head of their ranks was the infamous Lance Armstrong, who won a record 7 yellow jerseys between 1999 and 2005.

MAPEI
The number one ranked cycling team between 1994 and 2000, Mapei was home to some of the greatest riders of that generation. Johan Museeuw, Michele Bartoli, Andrea Tafi, Franco Ballerini, Frank Vandenbroeck, a young Paolo Bettini...the list goes on.

HTC-COLUMBIA
Emerging from the ashes of the T-Mobile doping scandal of 2007, team High Road, as it was known back then, acquired the sponsorship of Colombia Sportswear and HTC electronics and enjoyed an incredible run of victories at the Tour de France, with the team building their hopes around a brash young sprinter named Mark Cavendish.

RENAULT GITANE ELF
Under the leadership of former rider Cyril Guimard, Renault Gitane, then latterly Renault Elf, were a very big deal in the late 70s and early 80s. A thoroughly French team with a very strong star rider, Bernard Hinault.

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Photos: © Bettiniphoto / http://www.bettiniphoto.net/ & ©Tim De Waele / http://www.tdwsport.com

Additional photo credit:

By Bogaerts, Rob / Anefo [CC BY-SA 3.0 nl (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/nl/deed.en)], via Wikimedia Commons

By schueyjr (@flickr) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

By Verhoeff, Bert / Anefo [CC BY-SA 3.0 nl (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/nl/deed.en)], via Wikimedia Commons

By Eric HOUDAS - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7497036

By Anders via Flickr Creative Commons CC BY-ND 2.0 [https://flic.kr/p/dkaJMy]

By Eric HOUDAS (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

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