Leading German professional cycling team, operating (under slight variations on the name - Deutsche Telekom, Team Deutsche Telekom and currently Team Telekom) since the early 1990s, as an advertising vehicle for the then newly privatised telco and various of its products. The team management is in the hands (both financial and sporting) of former Belgian rider Walter Godefroot.
For most of the team's existence it has been the sole team of international standing based in Germany, which has always been a second-string cycling nation. The most prominent rider in the early years of the team was sprinter Olaf Ludwig, who was however fading from his previous green jersey winning form. The team moved up into the big time in 1996 when Dane Bjårne Riis won the Tour de France after five years of domination by Miguel Indurain; second behind Riis was his young German teammate Jan Ullrich who was to go on to win in 1997. Since that time the team has basically been built around the talents of Ullrich and sprinter turned classics winner Erik Zabel. Ullrich's has become an eternal second in the Tour, (beaten by Marco Pantani in 1998 and Lance Armstrong) ever since, but Zabel has amde up in part with a record six Tour green jerseys as well as the UCI World Cup in 2000 and the Milano-Sanremo classic in four consecutive years to 2001. The team also pulled off something of a coup in 2000 when Telekom riders (riding ostensibly for their national teams) took all three medals in the road race at the Sydney Olympic Games; Ullrich also took gold in the time trial there.
Team lineup for the 2002 season (German unless indicated)
Update July 1, 2003: After Jan Ullrich, already sidelined by injury, failed an out-of-competition dope test for (apparently recreational) amphetamine use in 2002, his contract was not renewed, leaving the team to focus on Wesemann, Vinokourov and Zabel for the 2003 season.
UCI team code: TEL
Team homepage: http://www.teamtelekom.de
Update December 2007: the team (which had in the interim been rechristened T-Mobile (TMO) after Deutsche Telekom's international mobile brand) finally lost its sponsor at the end of the 2007 season following a string of high-profile doping cases involving current and former riders including Jan Ullrich, Erik Zabel, Bjårne Riis and Patrick Sinkewitz.