Beginnings
The team was founded in 1984 as System U. The team disbanded in 1985 but returned in 1986 under new management. Cyrille Guimard became the directeur sportif, bringing his protégé Laurent Fignon who nearly won the 1989 edition of the Tour de France. A change of sponsor in 1990 renamed the team Castorama.
In 1992 Guimard became manager of the team. In 1995, Jean-René Bernaudeau, a former professional racer, became director of the team. From 1996 to 1999, the team withdrew from top-level competition. Bernaudeau set up a development team in the Vendée region called Vendée U.
Read more about this topic: Team Europcar
Famous quotes containing the word beginnings:
“When the beginnings of self-destruction enter the heart it seems no bigger than a grain of sand.”
—John Cheever (1912–1982)
“Those newspapers of the nation which most loudly cried dictatorship against me would have been the first to justify the beginnings of dictatorship by somebody else.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“These beginnings of commerce on a lake in the wilderness are very interesting,—these larger white birds that come to keep company with the gulls.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)