Credit Agricole is the first to go
Posted on 02. Aug, 2008 by Josh in Marketing, Personal
There were a lot of teams on the market for title sponsors this year. Despite the new sponsorships announced before the Tour, it looks like the first team to fold will be Roger Legeay’s Credit Agricole, according to VeloNews.
To my knowledge, they’re the only current “ASOtour” program with roots in an actual cycling club: Velo Moto Club de Paris. Check out this picture of Roger Walkowiak from 1958, their first of over 40 years as a pro team sponsored by Peugeot. Afterwards, it was Z, Gan, and Credit Agricole since 1998. Former riders include Eddy Merckx, Greg Lemond, Stephen Roche, and Chris Boardman. Thor Hushovd aside, the recent years have been a slight decline for them: 9th, 11th, and 15th in the ProTour from 2005-2007.
Most importantly, they showed a lot of class with Saul Raisin. They didn’t just honor his contract after his injury, but they really included him as part of the team until it was clear that he wasn’t going to race again.
There are some cool videos here, unfortunately not embeddable. But check out the 2001 TTT win at the Tour with Bobby Julich, Jonathan Vaughters, Thor Hushovd, Jens Voigt and Stuart O’Grady in yellow. Chris Boardman’s Merckx-beating hour record is great too.
Someone should post those on YouTube before Credit Agricole takes the team content off their website.
