| Team information | ||
|---|---|---|
| UCI code | LIN | |
| Registered | United Kingdom | |
| Founded | 1998 | |
| Disbanded | 2001 | |
| Discipline(s) | Road | |
| Status | Inactive | |
| Key personnel | ||
| General manager | Julian Clark | |
| ||
The Linda McCartney Racing Team was a British professional road bicycle racing team.
| Team information | ||
|---|---|---|
| UCI code | LIN | |
| Registered | United Kingdom | |
| Founded | 1998 | |
| Disbanded | 2001 | |
| Discipline(s) | Road | |
| Status | Inactive | |
| Key personnel | ||
| General manager | Julian Clark | |
| ||
The Linda McCartney Racing Team was a British professional road bicycle racing team.
The team began in 1998 with Linda McCartney Foods, maker of vegetarian food, sponsoring vegetarian riders and staff. The company was started by Sir Paul McCartney's wife, Linda. Team success would promote vegetarianism and Linda McCartney Foods. [1]
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. [2]
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. [3]
Tyler Hamilton is an American former professional road bicycle racer. He is the only American rider to win one of the five Monuments of cycling, taking Liège–Bastogne–Liège in 2003. Hamilton became a professional cyclist in 1995 with the US Postal Service cycling team. He was a teammate of Lance Armstrong during the 1999, 2000 and 2001 Tours de France, where Armstrong won the general classification. He was a key asset for Armstrong, being a very good climber as well as time-trialist. Hamilton appeared at the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics. In 2004, he won a gold medal at the individual time trial. The first doping test after his Olympic victory gave a positive result, but because the backup sample was frozen, no doping offence could be proven. After he failed further doping tests at the 2004 Vuelta a España, Hamilton was suspended for two years from the sport.
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British Cycling is the main national governing body for cycle sport in Great Britain. It administers most competitive cycling in Great Britain, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. It represents Britain at the world body, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) and selects national teams, including the Great Britain (GB) Cycling Team for races in Britain and abroad. As of 2020, it has a total membership of 165000.
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Nicki Sørensen is a Danish former professional road bicycle racer, and was directeur sportif of UCI Professional Continental team Aqua Blue Sport. He competed in five consecutive editions of the Tour de France from 2001 to 2005. Riding as an all-round rider who rode well in hilly terrain, Sørensen was a valued support for the team leader without many wins of his own.
Nicole Denise Cooke, MBE is a Welsh former professional road bicycle racer and Commonwealth, Olympic and World road race champion. At Beijing in 2008 she became the first British woman to win a Gold Olympic medal in any cycling discipline. Cooke announced her retirement from the sport on 14 January 2013 at the age of 29.
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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 the form of burgers, sausages, sausage rolls, meatballs, stir-fry dishes and pastas.
Jonathan Tiernan-Locke is a British former professional road racing cyclist who last raced for UCI ProTeam Team Sky in 2013. Tiernan-Locke's major breakthrough came from winning four stage races during the 2012 UCI Europe Tour, including the Tour of Britain, while riding for Endura Racing. In 2014, his 2012 Tour of Britain win was stripped following the identification of anomalies in his biological passport data from around the time of that race, and he was banned from competition until the end of 2015.
Greg LeMond competed at a time when performance enhancing drugs were just beginning to impact his sport. Rumors of improprieties existed, including USA Cycling's blood doping at the 1984 LA Olympics and Francesco Moser's same measures prior to his 1984 assault on the hour record, but legalities were not sharply demarcated and the practice was not spoken of in the open. Considered one of the most talented cyclists of his generation, from his earliest days of professional cycling LeMond was strongly against taking performance enhancing drugs, largely on the basis of the health risks such practices posed. His career lacks the suspicious results that have tarnished his successors. His willingness to speak out against doping and those prominent individuals involved inadvertently linked him with the sport’s doping scandal controversies. In his opposition to fraud, corruption and what he saw as complicity on the part of cycling officials, LeMond became a lightning rod with the sports most prominent personalities.
Keith Lambert is a twice former British cycling champion and manager of the British under-23 road race team.