ONCE are a Professional cycling team sponsored by the Spanish charity for the blind, the Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles, as publicity for their lottery, Spain's largest. The Barcelona-based team was formed in 1990 with Manolo Saíz as team manager, who was brought in from outside the sport with surprising success, and became Spain's most successful all-round team during the 1990s, although they had to give pride of place to their leading rivals, Banesto, and Miguel Indurain in particular, when it came to the Tour de France. However, they dominated the short stage races on the Spanish calendar and were the most successful national team in the Vuelta a España, with wins by Melchior Mauri (1991), Laurent Jalabert (1995), Alex Zülle (1996 and 1997) and Abraham Olano (1998), as well as making a good showing in the classics. The team's very substantial overseas contingent - with only three out of nine riders in the Tour team being Spanish one year - led to the jibe that the initials actually stood for organización nacional de corredores estranjeros ("national organisation for foreign riders"), but in the last few years he team has looked more to home-grown talent like Olano and Joseba Beloki.
The team were marginally implicated in the doping scandals surrounding the Festina team (which included former ONCE riders Zülle and Neil Stephens, with the former admitting to systematic doping offences in his past) in the 1998 Tour. The ONCE team doctor, Nicolas Terrados, was charged with importing restricted medicines into France, but was finally acquitted in 2002.
The standard ONCE team colours have always been yellow, although the team has usually adopted pink (and once black) for the Tour de France in order to avoid confusion with the maillot jaune. Some seasons have seem co-sponsorship deals with Deutsche Bank and, latterly, Eroski.
Team lineup for the 2002 season (Spanish unless otherwise stated)
UCI team code: ONC
Team website: http://www.once.es/ciclista/