# Team Cofidis



## skyliner1004 (May 9, 2010)

These guys dont get much publicity. How do they compare to the other teams such as HTC/Garmin/Radioshack? 

Whenever i see them on the TDF, they're always trailing. BOO!


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## spookyload (Jan 30, 2004)

Used to be a decent team then they lost a few premier riders. Don't expect much besides an outside chance of a stage win.


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## j.knight (Dec 14, 2005)

They were in the break on stage 2 and are in the break on stage 3, but they just dont have what I would call a closer.


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## skyliner1004 (May 9, 2010)

Is it because their bikes are no good??


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## orblivious (Sep 19, 2008)

they've had a guy in the break nearly every stage so far!! like the new bike on the road, not so much in pics!!


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## maximum7 (Apr 24, 2008)

> they've had a guy in the break nearly every stage so far


Which doesn't mean much.
Too bad David Moncoutie didn't make the tour this year.


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## orange_julius (Jan 24, 2003)

spookyload said:


> Used to be a decent team then they lost a few premier riders. Don't expect much besides an outside chance of a stage win.


The history of Cofidis the team is really fascinating. Here is my understanding of how things evolved. Half of these may not be true, so I welcome corrections.

The team started because Francois Migraine (what an unfortunate name) the CEO of Cofidis the insurance company is a cycling nut. So he had a big plan and hired Cyrille Guimard, one of the genius of cycling strategy. He had previously directed Van Impe, Hinault and Fignon to multiple TdF wins, and also was the one who discovered and hired LeMond to France, to his then-team Renault/Elf.

So he had money to spend and in 1996-1997 hired Armstrong and his then-loyal domestiques Andreu and Livingston, plus Fondriest whose star was already waning by that time. We all know what happened to Armstrong at that time. Andreu continued to toil, riding what he said at the time were very crappy Fondriest bikes that were so bad he brought his own bike to the races. 

And the calamity doesn't stop there. Guimard was found guilty of credit card fraud and of course Cofidis the credit /loan company can't afford to keep him around anymore. So he departed, but after he hired Frank Vandenbroucke the fragile genius along with his 4 horsemen Nico Mattan, Chris Peers, Peter Farazijn, and Jo Planckaert. At that time Cofidis also hired Julich to be their GC guy. I can't tell whether Guimard had a hand in these hirings or not. But I think Alain Bondue replaced Guimard as manager. At least by this point, the team was smart enough to hire Cyfac to build their bikes, and have them be painted MBK, Decathlon or whoever the "sponsor" was at the time. I think this continued until around 2005? 

VDB won high-profile races during his season with the team, including the Het Volk - Liege double in 1999. And then he left, leaving his 4 horsemen in Cofidis. 

They had also hired young riders like David Millar and David Moncoutie, and stepped up involvement in track cycling. In 2000 Millar won the prologue and became popular, and Moncoutie had steady stream of results in lesser races. 

And I guess in 2004 they stepped up their investment and hired the then-world champ Astarloa, along with Stuart O'Grady and Matty White. Some good results in the TdF and Vattenfall, but overshadowed by the doping affair. The managers and the riders also had arguments about whether the riders should focus on getting UCI points or not. After a while the Belgians slowly moved out to other teams. 

After this they decided to go more French, so Millar and O'Grady and their domestiques left, and they hired Sylvain Chavanel. But this didn't really give them any big results for a while, so they decided to hire non-French riders Nuyens and De Weert and Moreni, plus Bradley Wiggins. Unfortunately Moreni was caught doping in the 2007 and they had to quite the TdF. 

So I imagine that Migraine has had plenty of headaches with his team. It will be sad to see Cofidis leave the sponsorship arena, given how much investment they have given.


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## spookyload (Jan 30, 2004)

orange_julius said:


> The history of Cofidis the team is really fascinating. Here is my understanding of how things evolved. Half of these may not be true, so I welcome corrections.


The only high profile rider you missed was Christophe Mereau. He too left for a more stable team.


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## orange_julius (Jan 24, 2003)

spookyload said:


> The only high profile rider you missed was Christophe Mereau. He too left for a more stable team.


When did he ride for Cofidis? I thought that he started with Festina, went to Credit Agricole, then to AG2R, then Agritubel and now Caisse d'Epargne?


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## maximum7 (Apr 24, 2008)

It's sad to see a team such as Cofidis on such prestigious bikes as Look. 
In fact if you look at the teams riding all the high-end Italian and French bikes, none of them made a great showing in the tour, even though I know it's just one race.


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