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Caisse d'Epargne
Team information
UCI code	GCE
Based	Spain
Founded	2004
Discipline(s)	Road
Status	ProTour
Key personnel
General Manager	José Miguel Echavarri
Team kit

Caisse d'Epargne (UCI Team Code: GCE) is professional road bicycle racing team which participates in the UCI ProTour. The title sponsor is a French bank, part of the Groupe Caisse d'Epargne, and the team traces its history back to the sponsorship of another bank, Banesto. The Banesto team (and later iBanesto.com) included 5-time Tour de France winner Miguel Indurain, 2-time winner of Vuelta a España Alex Zülle and legendary climber José Maria Jiménez. After the end of ibanesto.com's sponsorship in 2003, the Illes Balears (Balearic Islands) tourism board took over sponsorship of the team. Caisse d'Epargne became a sponsor in 2005 when the team was known as Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne and main title sponsor in 2006 with the name, Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears.

The team uses Pinarello bikes with Campagnolo parts (Pinarello supplied the team with "Paris FP Carbon" bicycles for the 2006 Tour de France).

Contents 1 Illes Balears [IBA] (2005) 2 Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears [CEI] (2006) 3 Prominent riders 4 2007 ProTeam 4.1 Major results 4.2 Team roster 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

The team fielded a number of strong contenders in the 2005 Tour de France including Francisco Mancebo (former National Champion of Spain), Alejandro Valverde , Vladimir Karpets (2004 Tour de France white jersey winner) and sprinter Isaac Gálvez. Mancebo produced the best results finishing fourth overall in the General Classification.

Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears finished fifth overall (56 minutes, 53 seconds behind Team T-Mobile) in the Team Classification at the 2006 Tour de France. Individually, the team's top rider, Óscar Pereiro, finished in second place. It is, however, likely that he will eventually be upgraded to the winner's position. A urine sample taken from Phonak rider and Tour winner Floyd Landis immediately after his Stage 17 win has twice tested positive for banned synthetic testosterone as well as a ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone nearly three times the limit allowed by World Anti-Doping Agency rules.^[1]

After hearing of the positive "A" test, Pereiro stated that it was only an initial, unconfirmed result and he would not yet consider Landis guilty or himself the Tour winner. "I have too much respect for Landis to do otherwise", he said.^[2] After hearing that the Landis "B" test also came back positive, Pereiro stated that he now considers himself Tour champion and the Landis scandal should not diminish his own achievement. "Right now I feel like the winner of the Tour de France", Pereiro said. "It's a victory for the whole team."^[3]

• Alejandro Valverde, born 1980, Spain
• Francisco Mancebo, born 1976, Spain, moved to AG2R Prévoyance (2006)
• Óscar Pereiro, born 1977, Spain, moved from Phonak (2006)

• Team classification

Paris-Nice

Tour de Suisse

Vuelta a España

• Stage 6, Paris-Nice - Luis León Sánchez
• Trofeo Cala Millor-Cala Bona (2007-02-12) - Vicente Reynès
• Tour Méditerranéen Stage 1 - Team time trial (Florent Brard, Vladimir Efimkin, Imanol Erviti, Marco Fertonani, José Vicente Garcia, Iván Gutiérrez, Alexei Markov, Aitor Pérez)
• Vuelta a Mallorca - Luis León Sánchez
• Volta a Catalunya Stage 1 - Team time trial
• Tour de Suisse - General classification: Vladimir Karpets

As of May 19, 2007.^[4]

Rider Date of Birth  David Arroyo (ESP) January 7, 1980 (1980-01-07) (age 27)  Eric Berthou (FRA) January 23, 1980 (1980-01-23) (age 27)  Florent Brard (FRA) February 7, 1976 (1976-02-07) (age 31)  Vladimir Efimkin (RUS) December 2, 1981 (1981-12-02) (age 26)  Imanol Erviti (ESP) November 15, 1983 (1983-11-15) (age 24)  Marco Fertonani (ITA) (Suspended) July 8, 1976 (1976-07-08) (age 31)  José Vicente García (ESP) August 4, 1972 (1972-08-04) (age 35)  Iván Gutiérrez (ESP) November 27, 1978 (1978-11-27) (age 29)  Joan Horrach (ESP) March 27, 1974 (1974-03-27) (age 33)  Vladimir Karpets (RUS) September 20, 1980 (1980-09-20) (age 27)  Pablo Lastras (ESP) January 20, 1976 (1976-01-20) (age 31)  David Lopez (ESP) May 13, 1981 (1981-05-13) (age 26)  Alberto Losado (ESP) February 28, 1982 (1982-02-28) (age 25)  Alexei Markov (RUS) May 26, 1979 (1979-05-26) (age 28)

Rider Date of Birth  Óscar Pereiro (ESP) August 3, 1977 (1977-08-03) (age 30)  Aitor Pérez (ESP) July 24, 1977 (1977-07-24) (age 30)  Francisco Pérez (ESP) July 22, 1978 (1978-07-22) (age 29)  Mathieu Perget (FRA) September 18, 1984 (1984-09-18) (age 23)  Rubén Plaza (ESP) February 29, 1980 (1980-02-29) (age 27)  Nicolas Portal (FRA) April 23, 1979 (1979-04-23) (age 28)  Sébastien Portal (FRA) June 4, 1982 (1982-06-04) (age 25)  Vicente Reynès (ESP) July 30, 1981 (1981-07-30) (age 26)  Joaquin Rodríguez (ESP) May 12, 1979 (1979-05-12) (age 28)  José Joaquín Rojas Gil (ESP) June 8, 1985 (1985-06-08) (age 22)  Luis León Sánchez (ESP) December 24, 1983 (1983-12-24) (age 23)  Alejandro Valverde (ESP) April 25, 1980 (1980-04-25) (age 27)  Constantino Zaballa (ESP) May 15, 1978 (1978-05-15) (age 29)  Xabier Zandio (ESP) March 17, 1977 (1977-03-17) (age 30)

• List of teams and cyclists in the 2007 Tour de France
• 2007 Tour de France
• Tour de France

• Official website
• Former official website

v • d • e Teams UCI ProTour (2008)
Ag2r-La Mondiale • Astana Team • Bouygues Télécom • Caisse d'Epargne • Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone • Crédit Agricole • Team CSC • Euskaltel-Euskadi • La Française des Jeux • Gerolsteiner • Team High Road • Lampre-Fondital • Liquigas • Team Milram • Quick·Step-Innergetic • Rabobank • Saunier Duval-Scott • Silence-Lotto
See also	UCI ProTour • UCI ProTour 2008 • 2007-2008 UCI Africa Tour • 2007-2008 UCI America Tour • 2007-2008 UCI Asia Tour • 2007-2008 UCI Europe Tour • 2007-2008 UCI Oceania Tour