2016 Etixx-Quick Step

Since its inception the team has scored more than 500 victories, including 15 Monument Classics, 4 Road World Championships, 5 ITT Road World Championships, 2 TTT World Championships, 2 World Cups and an Olympic Title. In 2015 Etixx – Quick Step was the winningest team for the fourth year in a row, thanks to 56 overall wins (54 on the road). Current top riders for the team are sprinter Marcel Kittel (winner of 8 stages at the Tour de France), Tom Boonen (4-time Paris-Roubaix winner), three-time UCI World TT Champion Tony Martin, Niki Terpstra (winner of Paris-Roubaix 2014), Zdenek Stybar (winner Strade Bianche 2015), Dan Martin (winner of Liege Bastogne Liege 2013 and Giro di Lombardia 2014) and the Luxembourg Champion Bob Jungels. Team work, talent, sports-applied technology, commitment, willpower and excellence are the principles that guide the activities of the team day by day. The project associated with the Continental Team (in 2016 Klein Constantia Team) has given athletes like Julian Alaphilippe, Petr Vakoc and Lukasz Wisniowski the chance to become a part of the World Tour team. The services of Bakala Academy are also available for recreational athletes, showing that anyone can benefit from the relationship of sport and science at this state-of-the-art facility. In this team we all take part in this Ride and we share our experiences with the people we meet along our journey. The roots of the Etixx – Quick-Step Cycling Team heritage took hold in the team’s debut year during the 2003 season, under the name Quick Step-Davitamon. From 2003 to 2010 the team captured more than 280 victories and 16 Classics. Paolo Bettini also gave the team 2 World Cup Titles (2003-2004) and an Olympic Gold Medal (Athens 2004). The team won three Road World Championships, with Boonen in 2005 and Bettini in 2006 and 2007, while Michael Rogers won on three occasions the TT World Championship (2003-2005). The squad has also captured 30 stages in the major Tours: 16 at Tour de France, 5 at Giro d’Italia, 9 at Vuelta. Virenque wore the polka dot jersey twice in the Tour de France and has become the rider with the most victories in the polka dot jersey classification, which we won seven times. Add to this the points jersey won at the Giro d’Italia by Paolo Bettini in 2005 and 2006 and the green jersey as leader of the points classification captured by Tom Boonen in the 2007 Tour de France. These important numbers have made the team one of the most recognized and established formations in the world and a leading team in the classics thanks to the talents of Tom Boonen and Paolo Bettini, the two athletes who have made lasting impressions in the team’s history. The Czech Businessman Mr Zdenek Bakala took over the team at the end of 2010. While the team was busy restructuring and preparing with behind-the-scenes operations in 2011, 2012 proved to be an extraordinary year. Omega Pharma – Quick-Step collected 60 victories in 2012, including a return to Classics glory for Tom Boonen. He broke or matched several records. He was the first rider in cycling history to win the E3 Harelbeke, Gent–Wevelgem, the Tour of Flanders and Paris–Roubaix in the same year. Tornado Tom was also the first rider to earn the Tour of Flanders/Paris-Roubaix Double twice in his career. Last, but certainly not least, the Belgian cobble crusher equalled the record of Roger De Vlaeminck by winning his fourth career Paris-Roubaix. Boonen also won the Belgian National Road Championship, and the Paris-Brussels one-day race. Finally, Boonen was a part of the UCI World Team Time Trial Championship winning team in September, as Omega Pharma – Quick-Step Cycling Team won the inaugural gold medal in that event. German rider Tony Martin, who signed with the team in 2012, showed everyone why he is the best time trial rider on the planet. He won the overall classification at the Tour of Belgium after taking victory in the time trial, as well as the German National Time Trial Champion