Euskaltel-Euskadi (
UCI Team Code: EUS) is a professional
road bicycle racing team from
Spain. The team is commercially sponsored, but also works as an unofficial
Basque national team and is partly funded by the
Basque Government. Its riders are either from
Basque Country, or at least have grown up in the cycling culture of those regions. Its sponsor is
Euskaltel, a Basque telecom company. Euskatel-Euskadi is famous for its all-orange team kits, and it has been known to hand out orange Euskaltel t-shirts and
Basque flags to fans when the
Tour de France makes a swing into the
Basque Country.
After a breakthrough
2003 Tour de France during which both
Iban Mayo and
Haimar Zubeldia finished in the top-10 of the general classification, with Mayo winning the
Alpe d'Huez stage, Euskaltel-Euskadi was considered to be a strong contender for the
2004 Tour de France. Iban Mayo's commanding victory in the
Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré stage race (traditionally seen as one of the tests for Tour de France contenders), including defeating
Lance Armstrong in the
Mont Ventoux hill climb individual time trial stage, further fueled the hype. Unfortunately, Mayo was injured in a crash on a
pavé section of an early stage of the Tour de France, and abandoned in the first
Pyrénées stage. Zubeldia also failed to deliver in...
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