DFL–Cyclingnews–Litespeed

Team DFL–Cyclingnews–Litespeed was a British professional cycling team that rode UCI Continental Circuits races.

Team Cyclingnews.com–Down Under

Team information
Registered	United Kingdom
Founded	2001 (2001)
Disbanded	2009
Discipline(s)	Road
Status	UCI Continental
Key personnel
General manager	Nick Collins
Team manager(s)	Rudi Dubois
Team name history
2001–2003 2004 2005 2006–2007 2008	Team Down Under Team cyclingnews.com-Down Under Team Cyclingnews.com Fondriest DFL-Cyclingnews–Litespeed Pedaltech-Cyclingnews

2007 Season

The team leader for 2007 was Belgian Nico Mattan and the squad included 2006 British champion Hamish Haynes, reigning Finnish National Time Trial champion Matti Helminen and English rider Daniel Lloyd. Eric Vanderaerden was a directeur sportif.^[1]

In what was a disappointing season, Lloyd scored the team's best general classification result with his second-place overall finish at the Tour of Qinghai Lake. Cameron Jennings won a stage of the Jayco Herald Sun Tour, Helminen retained the Finnish National Time Trial Championship and Jeremy Vennell was victorious on stages five and six of the Powernet Tour of Southland to give DFL four professional victories for the season.^[2]

Mattan in particular had an underwhelming season, his only ranking points of the year coming via a 78th place finish at Gent–Wevelgem. The former Gent–Wevelgem and two-time Paris-Nice stage winner finished outside the top 2000 in the professional rider rankings and would retire at the end of the season.^[3]

Daniel Lloyd was the highest rated member of the squad in 2007, finishing a creditable 329th in the end of season PCS rankings.^[4]

Team closure

In 2008 it wanted to become a professional continental team under the name Pedaltech-Cyclingnews and signed Steffen Wesemann^[5] and Bas Giling.^[6] It also had an agreement with Marc Lotz but Pedaltech signed two British professionals instead.^[7] Top performers Lloyd and Helminen left the team, joining An Post–M.Donnelly–Grant Thornton–Sean Kelly and Palmans–Cras respectively for 2008.

The UCI did not give the team the professional continental licence.^[8] Potential sponsors pulled out, including bike supplier Museeuw Bicycles^[9] and Cyclingnews.com, after which the team was to be known as Pedaltech Pro Cycling Team. Then the team manager, who was its owner, faked having cancer and could not run the team.^[10] It collapsed.^[11][12]

Team roster

Rider Date of birth  Bjorn Cornelissen (NED) (1976-06-03) 3 June 1976 (age 48)  Sven de Weerdt (BEL) (1978-03-29) 29 March 1978 (age 46)  Dan Fleeman (GBR) (1982-10-03) 3 October 1982 (age 42)  David Harrigan (AUS) (1975-05-26) 26 May 1975 (age 49)  Hamish Haynes (GBR) (1974-03-05) 5 March 1974 (age 50)  Matti Helminen (FIN) (1975-08-14) 14 August 1975 (age 49)  Cameron Jennings (AUS) (1970-04-27) 27 April 1970 (age 54)  Daniel Lloyd (GBR) (1980-08-11) 11 August 1980 (age 44)  Nico Mattan (BEL) (1971-07-17) 17 July 1971 (age 53)

Rider Date of birth  Robby Meul (BEL) (1981-09-04) 4 September 1981 (age 43)  Jens Mouris (NED) (1980-03-12) 12 March 1980 (age 44)  Kane Oakley (AUS) (1976-10-04) 4 October 1976 (age 48)  Evan Oliphant (GBR) (1982-01-08) 8 January 1982 (age 42)  Rhys Pollock (AUS) (1980-03-14) 14 March 1980 (age 44)  Bernard Sulzberger (AUS) (1983-12-05) 5 December 1983 (age 40)  Gert Vanderaerden (BEL) (1973-01-23) 23 January 1973 (age 51)  Jeremy Vennell (NZL) (1980-10-06) 6 October 1980 (age 44)  Juan Pablo Wilches Rodriguez (COL) (1982-01-22) 22 January 1982 (age 42)

Former riders

• Russell Downing (2006) - Former British Champion
• Matthew Wilson (2001)

References

1. "From Roubaix to Wolverhampton — Eric's back at the races". Cyclingnews.com. Bath, UK: Future plc. Retrieved 24 September 2007.
2. "DFL-Cyclingnews-Litespeed 2007".
3. "Nico Mattan".
4. "Daniel Lloyd".
5. "Wesemann to lead Pedaltech-Cyclingnews". Cyclingnews.com. Bath, UK: Future plc. Retrieved 25 May 2008.
6. "Giling to Pedaltech-Cyclingnews". Archived from the original on 21 July 2012. Retrieved 25 May 2008.
7. "Marc Lotz rejected by Pedaltech-Cyclingnews". Cyclingnews.com. Bath, UK: Future plc. 14 December 2007. Retrieved 25 May 2008.
8. "Pedaltech confirms UCI action". Retrieved 25 May 2008.
9. "Museeuw Bikes pull out of Pedaltech-Cyclingnews". Retrieved 25 May 2008.
10. "More bad news for Pedaltech". Cyclingnews.com. Bath, UK: Future plc. Retrieved 25 May 2008.
11. "PEZ Talks With Bernie Sulzberger". Retrieved 25 May 2008.
12. "Dan Lloyd signs with Sean Kelly team". Retrieved 25 May 2008.

External links

• Team History on cyclingnews.com