User:Green-eyed girl/2009 Team Columbia-HTC season

The 2009 season for, the name it assumed after a midseason sponsorship deal, is ongoing. As a UCI ProTeam, they are automatically invited and obliged to send a squad to every event in the UCI ProTour, and have been invited to every event in the inaugural World Calendar as well. The team began the season with the name Team Columbia-High Road, and competed in the Giro d'Italia as well as other races prior to the Tour de France with that name, where they unveiled the new name Team Columbia-HTC. The team's general manager is Bob Stapleton, in his second year with the team.

Team Columbia-HTC is by far the team most prolific in winning individual stages in stage races, largely thanks to their noted sprinter Mark Cavendish. Cavendish has won multiple stages in six different events on the season, including six stages in the Tour de France alone. The team has also shown well at one-day races, with Cavendish winning a sprint finish to Milan-Sanremo and Edvald Boasson Hagen likewise in Gent-Wevelgem.

While they have been extremely successful in 'stage hunting', the team's only overall victory in a stage race on the season is Michael Albasini's triumph in Österreich-Rundfahrt. Michael Rogers was thought to be a contender for the overall victory or the podium in the Giro d'Italia, but he finished eighth after not improving upon the position gained after the team won the Giro's opening team time trial. The team did not have a rider place in the top ten overall of the Tour de France for the first time since 2002, when they were known as Team Telekom.

2009 team roster
Ages as of January 1, 2009.


 * Riders who joined the team for the 2009 season


 * Riders who left the team during or after the 2008 season