Both of the teams that ride Specialized Bikes started the Tour de France on low notes. Quick Step found out that sprint star Tom Boonen was not going to be able to ride this years Tour due to some out of competition issues. The other team found out that its primary sponsor Gerolsteiner would not be returning in 2009.
Quick Step is a sprinting team and generally looks for wins on the flatter stages. Without Mr. Boonen riding it was going to fall to the other members of the team such as Gert Steegmans. However, Team Columbia's Mark Cavendish won 4 of the sprints and did not leave much for anyone else. Coming into stage 21 Team Quick Step did not have a stage win. It turned out that stage 21 was the charm and Mr. Steegmans was able to pull out the win. If you are only going to win one sprinting stage the final stage in Paris is the one to win.
Team Gerolsteiner was much more successful in the 2008 tour. They won the King of the Mountains (Bernhard Kohl),the two time trials (Stefan Schumacher), had yellow jersey for a couple of days (Stefan Schumacher) and finished 3rd overall (Bernhard Kohl). Not a bad Tour for a team that is not CSC - Saxo Bank. Hopefully they will be able to get a sponsor for next year.
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