Astana Qazaqstan Team is a professional road bicycle racing team sponsored by the Samruk-Kazyna, a coalition of state-owned companies from Kazakhstan and named after its capital city Astana. Astana attained UCI ProTeam status in its inaugural year, 2007. Following a major doping scandal involving Kazakh rider Alexander Vinokourov, team management was terminated and new management brought in for the 2008 season. The team was then managed by Johan Bruyneel, former team manager of U.S. Postal/Discovery Channel team. Under Bruyneel the ethical nature of the team did not improve, although Astana in this period was very successful.
The UCI ProTour was a series of road bicycle races in Europe, Australia and Canada organised by the UCI. 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. The ProTour was the subject of continuing disputes involving the UCI, cycling teams, and the organizers of the world's most prominent bicycle races, and in 2009 and 2010 the ranking element of the ProTour was superseded by the UCI World Ranking.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 the highest level of registration, and will carry the right and obligation to participate in all World Tour races.
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.
Andrei Tchmil is a retired Soviet, Moldovan (1992–1994), Ukrainian (1994–1998) and Belgian professional road bicycle racer. He competed in the men's individual road race at the 1996 Summer Olympics.
Agritubel Pro Cycling Team was a French professional road race cycling team. The team's title sponsor, Agritubel, is a manufacturer and supplier of tubular metal products for cattle, livestock and farming.
The 2007 UCI ProTour was the third year of the UCI ProTour system. Following a dispute and power struggle between the UCI and the organisers of the Grand Tours, ASO, RCS and Unipublic, a number of events were run as ProTour events, although without ProTour licences. Races counted towards the ProTour standings, although the organisers were not obliged to invite all 20 UCI ProTeams, notably not inviting Unibet.com.
Mikhail Borisovich Ignatiev is a former Russian professional track and road bicycle racer. He recently rode for UCI ProTour team Team Katusha, as well as participating in various track events. He is known as a time trial specialist, and also has a reputation for making the breakaway in road races and trying, often with success, to solo to victory.
Roy Sentjens is a retired Belgian road bicycle racer, who competed as a professional between 2002 and 2013. Sentjens has also previously competed for UCI ProTour team Team Milram. The highlight of his career was victory in the Belgian semi-classic Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne in 2003. Sentjens started his career with Rabobank in 2002, and transferred to Predictor-Lotto for the 2007 season. Sentjens held dual citizenship, from both Belgium and the Netherlands, and from 2002 until 2004 raced under a Dutch licence. However, in 2005, he changed to a Belgian license as he felt more Belgian than Dutch.
The 2008 UCI ProTour is the fourth year of the UCI ProTour system. Following protracted disagreement between the organisers of the Grand Tours and the UCI, all races organized by ASO, RCS and Unipublic were withdrawn from the ProTour calendar. This removed all three Grand Tours, four of the five monuments and four further races. As such, the quality of the races of the ProTour was diminished. The Australian race, the Tour Down Under was added to the calendar, making it the first race outside Europe on the ProTour.
CCC Pro Team was a UCI WorldTeam co-owned and managed by American cyclist Jim Ochowicz, who founded the 7-Eleven Cycling Team. After its last title sponsor, CCC, a Polish shoe retailer, pulled out due to financial difficulties resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, Ochowicz was unable to find another major sponsor, so the team disbanded at the end of the 2020 season. In its place, Belgian UCI ProTeam Circus–Wanty Gobert took over the team's license and was promoted to a UCI WorldTeam.
The 2007 season for the Astana cycling team was its first, though the team's sponsors in the Kazakhstani government had entered the sport the year before backing the dissolved Liberty Seguros team. That same team was known as "Astana" for part of the season, including the 2006 Vuelta a España, but as the UCI license previously held by Manolo Saiz transferred to new ownership, headquartered in a new nation, it is considered a new team from 2007 onward. The team's manager for the 2007 season was former Tour de Suisse organizer Marc Biver, who had never before managed a cycling team at any level.
Team RadioShack was a professional road bicycle racing team, with RadioShack as the title sponsor, the creation of which was announced on July 23, 2009. Lance Armstrong co-owned and led the team, which raced in the Grand Tours and the UCI ProTour. The team was managed by Capital Sports and Entertainment, an Austin, Texas sports and event management group that also manages the Trek-Livestrong U23 development cycling team and that ran the former Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team.
Johnny Hoogerland is a Dutch former professional cyclist, who rode professionally between 2004 and 2016 for the Van Hermet–Eurogifts, Jartazi–7Mobile, Van Vliet–EBH Elshof, Vacansoleil–DCM, Androni Giocattoli–Venezuela and Roompot–Oranje Peloton squads.
The 2011 season for the Veranda's Willems–Accent professional cycling team began in January at the Grand Prix d'Ouverture La Marseillaise and ended in October at the Nationale Sluitingsprijs. It was the squad's fourth season as a professional cycling team, although its first as a UCI Professional Continental team; having been part of the UCI Continental Circuits since their foundation in 2008, the team acquired a Professional Continental licence following meetings of the UCI Licence Commission in November 2010.
Tosh Van der Sande is a Belgian professional cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Visma–Lease a Bike. Van der Sande is considered as a classics specialist.
Danny van Poppel is a Dutch professional road racing cyclist, who rides for UCI WorldTeam Bora–Hansgrohe.
The 2015 Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen was the 69th edition of the Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen cycling stage race. Rated as a 2.1 event by the UCI as part of the UCI Europe Tour, the race took place from 6 to 8 March 2015.
The 2015 Three Days of De Panne was the 39th edition of the Three Days of De Panne cycling stage race. It took place around De Panne in West Flanders in the week between Gent–Wevelgem and the Tour of Flanders, beginning on 31 March and ending on 2 April. The race included four stages, two of which took place on the final day. It was rated as a 2.1 event in the 2015 UCI Europe Tour. The defending champion was Guillaume Van Keirsbulck (Etixx–Quick-Step), who won the 2014 edition by seven seconds.
Bas Tietema is a Dutch former cyclist, who competed as a professional from 2017 to 2018 and again from 2022 to 2023.
TDT–Unibet Cycling Team is a Dutch UCI Continental cycling team focusing on road bicycle racing. Bas Tietema created the team in 2023. The team is set to upgrade to UCI ProTeam status in 2024.
