Cycling Team 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.

Cofidis Solutions Crédits

Team information
UCI code	COF
Registered	France
Founded	1997 (1997)
Discipline(s)	Road
Status	UCI Professional Continental (2010–2019) UCI WorldTeam (2005–2009, 2020–)
Bicycles	Kuota (–2019) De Rosa (2020–2022) Look (2009–2014, 2023–)
Website	Team home page
Key personnel
General manager	Cédric Vasseur
Team name history
1997–	Cofidis
Current season

Cyrille Guimard started the team in 1996 with backing from François Migraine, the chief executive of Cofidis. An early acquisition was Lance Armstrong, formerly of Motorola Cycling Team. Armstrong was dropped because of his cancer and another American, Bobby Julich, became leader for stage races. Julich's place in the top three of the 1998 Tour de France brought the team to the spotlight, and Frank Vandenbroucke brought further results in classics. That year, Cofidis won the team classification in the Tour.

 

Years of drought followed as Julich and Vandenbroucke left the team. Vandenbroucke's Belgian compatriots, Nico Mattan, Chris Peers, Peter Farazijn, and Jo Planckaert, stayed on but were criticised for inconsistent performances. Cofidis, on the demand of Migraine, began paying riders by results, judged by the points they won in a season-long competition run by the Union Cycliste Internationale. Belgian riders criticised the policy, saying it would lead riders to ride conservatively to be sure of good placings at the finish. They debated the issue publicly with the manager, Alain Bondue, and left.

David Millar raised the team's profile by winning the prologue of the 2000 Tour de France, taking leadership of the team. Millar criticized the points system and the team relented.

In 2004 Cofidis had three world champions – Igor Astarloa on the road, David Millar in the individual time trial and Laurent Gané on the track. However, a doping scandal involving Millar and other riders led them to stop racing until it was resolved. Astarloa left the team. The investigation decided that doping was by individual riders and that the team was not involved. David Millar has since suggested otherwise, in a strongly worded interview with the BBC. In May 2004 the team announced that Bondue and team doctor Jean-Jacques Menuet had both resigned. The team then returned to competition for the 2004 Tour de France, in which Stuart O'Grady and David Moncoutié won stages, Moncoutié's on Bastille Day.

Following the doping scandals, the team appointed Éric Boyer as team manager in 2005. Moncoutié won on Bastille day again in the 2005 Tour de France – the only French stage win – with O'Grady's help. A new signing, Sylvain Chavanel failed to win a stage or to make a strong impression.

O'Grady and Matthew White left in 2006. Cédric Vasseur – often the road captain – also left. An early victory in Classic Haribo by Arnaud Coyot showed the team still had firepower. Cofidis won the first stage of the 2006 Tour de France with Jimmy Casper, in a chaotic sprint.

 

 

Team Cofidis team vehicles in 2021

For 2007 the team signed Belgians Nick Nuyens and Kevin De Weert from Quick-Step–Innergetic.

On 25 July 2007 Cofidis rider Cristian Moreni failed his doping test after the 11th stage of the Tour de France. His blood contained traces of testosterone. Moreni acknowledged doping. The team withdrew from the Tour.

In 2008 the team enjoyed the most successful season of Boyer's time as manager, with Chavanel winning Dwars door Vlaanderen and Brabantse Pijl and Chavanel and Samuel Dumoulin both taking stage wins in that year's Tour de France.

On 29 September 2009, the UCI ProTour decided not to renew the ProTour licenses of Cofidis and Bbox Bouygues Telecom, due to poor results.

In 2012, the team received a wildcard invitation to the Tour de France, along with three other French-registered teams. A few days before the start of the race, Boyer was sacked as manager of the team, with Migraine blaming him for poor results: he was replaced by former Festina, Astana and FDJ–BigMat directeur sportif Yvon Sanquer.

On 10 July 2012, the first rest day in the 2012 Tour de France, French police raided the Cofidis team hotel, arresting French rider Rémy Di Gregorio on suspicion of doping.

 

For the 2015 season the team announced it had signed 2014 Giro d'Italia points classification winner, Nacer Bouhanni, along with Dominique Rollin, Geoffrey Soupe and Steve Chainel.

After a 2017 season during which the team only took 13 wins, in October of that year the team announced that Sanquer had been sacked, and that he would be replaced as manager by former Cofidis rider Vasseur.

The team returned to UCI WorldTour status in the 2020 season, and the team will using De Rosa bikes beginning from the 2020 season, ending their contract with Kuota.

Starting with the 2023 season the team will be riding Look bicycles.

As of 9 January 2024.

Rider Date of birth   Piet Allegaert (BEL) (1995-01-20) 20 January 1995 (age 29)   Stanisław Aniołkowski (POL) (1997-01-20) 20 January 1997 (age 27)   Thomas Champion (FRA) (1999-09-08) 8 September 1999 (age 24)   Bryan Coquard (FRA) (1992-04-25) 25 April 1992 (age 31)   Aimé De Gendt (BEL) (1994-06-17) 17 June 1994 (age 29)   Nicolas Debeaumarché (FRA) (1998-02-24) 24 February 1998 (age 26)   Kenny Elissonde (FRA) (1991-07-22) 22 July 1991 (age 32)   Rubén Fernández (ESP) (1991-03-01) 1 March 1991 (age 33)   Eddy Finé (FRA) (1997-11-20) 20 November 1997 (age 26)   Milan Fretin (BEL) (2001-03-19) 19 March 2001 (age 23)   Simon Geschke (GER) (1986-03-13) 13 March 1986 (age 38)   Alexis Gougeard (FRA) (1993-03-05) 5 March 1993 (age 31)   Ben Hermans (BEL) (1986-06-08) 8 June 1986 (age 37)   Jesús Herrada (ESP) (1990-07-26) 26 July 1990 (age 33)   Gorka Izagirre (ESP) (1987-10-07) 7 October 1987 (age 36)

Rider Date of birth   Ion Izagirre (ESP) (1989-02-04) 4 February 1989 (age 35)   Oliver Knight (GBR) (2001-01-25) 25 January 2001 (age 23)   Jonathan Lastra (ESP) (1993-06-03) 3 June 1993 (age 30)   Nolann Mahoudo (FRA) (2002-11-17) 17 November 2002 (age 21)   Axel Mariault (FRA) (1998-06-07) 7 June 1998 (age 25)   Guillaume Martin (FRA) (1993-06-09) 9 June 1993 (age 30)   Christophe Noppe (BEL) (1994-11-29) 29 November 1994 (age 29)   Stefano Oldani (ITA) (1998-01-10) 10 January 1998 (age 26)   Anthony Perez (FRA) (1991-04-22) 22 April 1991 (age 32)   Alexis Renard (FRA) (1999-06-01) 1 June 1999 (age 24)   Ludovic Robeet (BEL) (1994-05-22) 22 May 1994 (age 29)   Benjamin Thomas (FRA) (1995-09-12) 12 September 1995 (age 28)   Hugo Toumire (FRA) (2001-10-05) 5 October 2001 (age 22)   Harrison Wood (GBR) (2000-06-14) 14 June 2000 (age 23)   Axel Zingle (FRA) (1998-12-18) 18 December 1998 (age 25)

 

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