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Unibet.com Cycling Team
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Unibet.com | ||||||||||||||
| Team information | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UCI code | UNI | |||||||||||||
| Based |  Sweden |
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| Discipline(s) | Road | |||||||||||||
| Status | ProTour | |||||||||||||
| Key personnel | ||||||||||||||
| General Manager | Koen Terryn | |||||||||||||
| Team Manager | Jacques Hanegraaf | |||||||||||||
|
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Unibet.com (UCI Team Code: UNI) is a Swedish UCI ProTeam mainly sponsored by the online gambling website Unibet.com as a continuation of the MrBookmaker.com cycling team. The team rode on the European Continental Circuit, until the beginning of the 2007 season, when they were granted a ProTour licence.[1]
The team leaders are Hilaire van der Schueren, Lucien Van Impe and Willy Geukens, and noted cyclists on the team are Tour de France green jersey winner Baden Cooke, Italian sprinter Marco Zanotti and Spanish rider Luis Pasamontes.
Unibet.com has also been drawn into the Operación Puerto doping investigation. The cyclist Carlos Quesada was named by the Spanish authorities as a patient of Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes and was suspended by the team [2]. Although Quesada had been named, he has not yet been formally charged with doping, which led to the management of Unibet.com to lift its suspension of Quesada two weeks after it was imposed [3]. Nevertheless, the team did not pay the Spanish cyclist his salary, which led to a lawsuit, finally resolved with Quesada leaving the team in exchange for a compensation.
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This article or section resembles a fan site. Please help improve this article by removing excessive trivia and irrelevant praise, criticism, lists and collections of links.(December 2007) |
Despite obtaining a ProTour license for the 2007 season, Unibet.com were not granted entry in Paris-Nice, the inaugural race of the series. The organiser of the French race, Amaury Sport Organisation, argued that French law bans gambling companies (except for Française des Jeux and PMU, as well as some casinos). Nevertheless, Unibet.com took part in the French races GP La Marseillaise and Étoile de Bessèges with special jerseys without their sponsor's name.
RCS also snubbed Unibet.com for the Tirreno-Adriatico, explaining that Italian gambling law required a special license for Unibet. However, as the Unibet.com management pointed out, Unibet did have the license, while Predictor-Lotto's sponsor (the Belgian national lottery) did not, but the Belgian squad was allowed to race on Italian soil. RCS further contradicted themselves when they later invited Unibet.com to Milano-Sanremo in which Jeremy Hunt was their best rider, finishing in 17th place, ahead of former winners such as Filippo Pozzato or Paolo Bettini.
However, Unibet.com was not chosen to ride in any of the three Grand Tours.
- 1st, Nationale Sluitingprijs, (Gorik Gardeyn)
- 1st, GP d'Ouverture La Marseillaise, (Jeremy Hunt)
- 1st, Stage 3, Tour Down Under, (Baden Cooke)
- 1st, Le Samyn, (Jimmy Casper)
- 1st, General classification, Record Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen, (Jimmy Casper)
- 1st, Points classification, Record Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen, (Jimmy Casper)
- 1st, Stage 1, Record Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen, (Jimmy Casper)
- 1st, Mountains classification, Volta a Catalunya, (Luis Pasamontes)
- 1st, Stage 8, Tour de Suisse, (Rigoberto Uran)
As of February 2, 2007.[4]
- ^ Stokes, Shane. "Unibet in, Saiz out, ProTour place still possible for Astana", Cyclingnews.com, 2006-12-15. Retrieved on 2006-12-15.
- ^ Quesada temporarily suspended
- ^ Quesada to compete again
- ^ ProTour Team. unibetcycling.com. Retrieved on 2007-02-02.