Liquigas-Cannondale

Liquigas-Cannondale (UCI Team Code: LIQ) is an Italian professional road bicycle racing team in the UCI ProTour. The current title sponsor is Liquigas, a provider of liquified gas products in Italy. The second sponsor, Cannondale, is an American bicycle manufacturing company, whose sponsorship has led to a small American ridership on the team. In 2005 the team was co-title sponsored by Liquigas and Bianchi and was named Liquigas-Bianchi.

The team was founded under the name Liquigas in 1999, and was long in the second division team, slowly making a name of itself. From 2005 the team was combined with Team Bianchi for the Pro Tour.

In 2007, Cannondale replaced Bianchi as the bicycle sponsor. This marked Cannondale's return to the ProTour after discontinuing sponsorship of the Lampre-Caffita team at the end of the 2005 season.

On 11 July 2008 the news broke from the French sports paper L'Equipe that Spanish rider Manuel Beltrán had tested positive for EPO after the first stage of the tour. It was blood abnormalities before the start of the tour that led France's Anti-Doping Agency to target the rider. According to AP a spokesperson for Liquigas confirmed the same day that Beltrán had been thrown off the tour. It was also reported that the police had picked Beltrán up from his hotel where he had been staying with the rest of the Liquigas team, as well as searching the rest of the hotel for more doping. It was later confirmed that his B-sample also tested...
Read More