The 2008 season, now Columbia Women, was the first for the professional women's road cycling structure under this name. However, the team's organization and riders are identical to those of the T-Mobile team, which had been in existence since 2002. T-Mobile decided to end its sponsorship following the numerous doping cases linked to the men's team. Team manager Bob Stapleton decided to continue running the men's and women's teams without a main partner, as the former sponsor's termination fee was substantial. In June, sports equipment manufacturer Columbia Sportswear Company signed a partnership agreement for the period from July 2008 to the end of 2010.
The 2008 season was particularly prolific: the team won fifty UCI races, including the Route de France, and four World Cup rounds, including the Tour of Flanders, which gave Judith Arndt and the team victory in this competition. The year ends in first place in the UCI team rankings. In the individual rankings, Judith Arndt finished second and Ina-Yoko Teutenberg third.
Preparing for the season
Partners and team financing
In November 2007, T-mobile announced that it was ending its sponsorship of the cycling team in the wake of the doping scandal. However, it compensated the team for this breach of contract, and the team had enough money to continue for two years.
Bob Stapleton decided to maintain the team, which took the American flag and the name of the structure: High Road. Its headquarters moved from Bonn in Germany to San Luis Obispo in California. He introduced a strict anti-doping system.
In June, Bob Stapleton announces that the team has signed a sponsorship contract with Columbia Sportswear Company. The team bears the Columbia name from the men's Tour de France onwards.
Arrivals and departures After two years of change, the team finds some stability in 2008. Three riders join the team, including two from the Flexpoint team: German champion Luise Keller and Madeleine Sandig. U.S. champion Mara Abbott, coming off an exceptional first season, also joins from Webcor Builders.
The only person leaving the team was Suzanne de Goede, who joined . She had an excellent season there, finishing second in the World Cup. +Arrival2007 TeamMara AbbottWebcor BuildsersLuise KellerMadeleine Sandig +Departure2008 TeamSuzanne de Goede
Riders and technical staff
Staff List of team riders for the 2008 season +RacerDate of birthNationality2007 TeamMara AbbottNovember 14, 1985United StatesWebcorKimberly AndersonJanuary 28, 1968United StatesT-MobileJudith ArndtJuly 23, 1976GermanyT-MobileKatherine BatesMay 18, 1982AustraliaT-MobileChantal BeltmanAugust 25, 1976NetherlandsT-MobileEmilia FahlinOctobre 24, 1988SwedenT-MobileLuise KellerMarch 8, 1984GermanyAlexis RhodesDecember 1, 1984AustraliaT-MobileMadeleine SandigAugust 12, 1983GermanyIna-Yoko TeutenbergOctober 28, 1974GermanyT-MobileLinda VillumsenAbril 9, 1985DenmarkT-MobileAnke WichmannAugust 28, 1975GermanyT-MobileOenone WoodSeptember 24, 1980AustraliaT-Mobile
Team management Ronny Lauke takes over as team manager from Anna Wilson. As in previous years, the team manager for both the men's and women's teams is Bob Stapleton. The coach and media manager is Petra Rossner. The trainer is Arkadiusz Wojtas.
Season progress
January–February: start of season
In January, Alexis Rhodes wins the first stage of the Jayco Bay Cycling Classic. Oenone Wood wins the Australian National Road Cycling Championship ahead of Sharon Laws, with whom she is seconded.
The team's season kicks off with the Geelong Tour. Ina-Yoko Teutenberg is third in the inaugural time trial. Oenone Wood raises her arms in the first race ahead of the German. The latter was the fastest on the final stage, taking second place in the final overall classification, while Oenone Wood came fourth. On the eponymous World Cup event, despite the team's hard work, the peloton failed to catch up with the breakaway formed by Katheryn Mattis and Emma Rickards. Ina-Yoko Teutenberg won the sprint and finished third. The Tour of New Zealand takes place immediately afterwards. On the first stage, Oenone Wood took second place. She then won the second stage before finishing third on the following stage. She won the fourth stage. On the fifth stage time trial, she was third, twelve seconds behind Kristin Armstrong, who was leading the race. On the final stage, Ina-Yoko Teutenberg won. In the final overall classification, Oenone Wood was second, Judith Arndt fourth.
March–April: Classics At the Trofeo Alfredo Binda-Comune di Cittiglio, the presumably strong team fails to organize the chase behind Emma Pooley, who wins solo. Oenone Wood finished fifth. At the end of March, Mara Abbott won the uphill time trial on the first stage of the San Dimas Stage Race, forty-six seconds ahead of her pursuer. A few days later, she wins the prologue of the Redlands Bicycle Classic, with Kim Anderson third. Emilia Fahlin wins the third stage in a sprint. In the final stage, Alexandra Wrubleski wins and takes overall victory. Kim Anderson is third. Mara Abbott finishes second overall, Kim Anderson fourth.
In April, at the Tour of Flanders, the team proved to be very strong collectively, and was in full force in the group of fifteen riders who broke away mid-race. On the Grammont wall, Judith Arndt and Oenone Wood set off with three other riders. On the Bosberg, Judith Arndt is the only one to follow Kristin Armstrong's attack, beating her in a sprint. Oenone Wood also took fourth place. Four days later, Ina-Yoko Teutenberg won the sprint at the Drentse 8 van Dwingeloo. At the Tour de Drenthe, Chantal Beltmann took part in a breakaway with Sarah Düster and Elodie Touffet. When, with five kilometers to go, the peloton came back to within twenty seconds, the frontrunner accelerated decisively. Ina-Yoko Teutenberg takes third place, ahead of Marianne Vos in the sprint22. At the Flèche wallonne, Judith Arndt attacks at the start of the climb up the Mur de Huy, but is caught by Marianne Vos, who passes her, as does Marta Bastianelli. The German thus came third. At the end of the month, Ina-Yoko Teutenberg came second in the Borsele circuit, beaten by Kirsten Wild.
May: Tour de l'Aude At the Gracia Orlova, Mara Abbott takes third place in the first stage. Luise Keller is second in the following stage. Ina-Yoko Teutenberg finishes second in the third time-trial stage before winning the fourth stage ahead of Adrie Visser, with both riders a minute ahead of the third. Emilia Fahlin was third in the final stage. In the final classification, Luise Keller took second place on the podium. At the same time at the Tour de Berne, Judith Arndt won the pursuit group sprint behind Susanne Ljungskog. To her great surprise, she also took the lead in the World Cup standings. Chantal Beltman was fourth.
The first major tour of the season, the women's Tour de l'Aude, gets underway in mid-May. Judith Arndt finishes fourth in the first stage after following Susanne Ljungskog's attack down the slope with two kilometers to go. The team is second in the team time trial on stage 2 behind the Dutch national team. However, this allowed Judith Arndt to take the overall lead. On the queen stage, however, she lost more than four minutes to Susanne Ljungskog and her jersey in the process. The following day, Ina-Yoko Teutenberg broke away alone over the second pass, then shortly afterwards with Charlotte Becker. The gap to the peloton narrowed to just ten seconds at the flamme rouge. The two Germans maintained their lead, however, and Ina-Yoko Teutenberg took the win. Judith Arndt also becomes leader of the mountain ranking. Ina-Yoko Teutenberg sprinted again on stage eight. She also takes the lead in the points classification. Judith Arndt wins the last stage of the tour, run in the rain, by winning the sprint of a royal breakaway with the first four overall. Judith Arndt finishes second overall and wins the mountain classification. Roony Lauke is satisfied with the Tour.
June: Montreal and national championships On the last day of May, the Coupe du Monde Cycliste Féminine de Montréal gives the team a chance to shine. Ina-Yoko Teutenberg attacks solo on the third lap and manages to stay away from the peloton for five laps. After the regrouping, Judith Arndt breaks away with four other riders. On the final climb, she outdistanced all the others except Fabiana Luperini, whom she beat in a sprint. The Tour of Greater Montreal gets underway immediately afterwards. On the first stage, Oenone Wood came second in the sprint. On the following stage, Judith Arndt broke away with three other competitors, then went the distance to win. The third stage was a short time trial, also won by Judith Arndt, who also took the overall lead. On stage four, Oenone Wood was again second in the final sprint, while Arndt lost her leader's jersey to Suzanne De Goede. On the final stage, Arndt accelerated on the last climb and managed to outrun de Goede, raising her arms in the process. She went on to win the tour as well as three stages. Also in North America, Chantal Beltman won the Liberty Classic solo, attacking on Lemon Hill with three kilometers to go. Ina-Yoko Teutenberg took third place.
The Ster Zeeuwsche Eilanden allowed Ina-Yoko Teutenberg to show off her speed on the second and third stages. Thanks to bonuses, she also won the overall classification. At the Giro del Trentino Alto Adige-Südtirol, Judith Arndt finished fourth, sixth and second respectively on the three stages, while Mara Abbott finished second on stage two. Abbott finished second overall, with Arndt third.
In the national championships, Luise Keller successfully defends her title in the German road race. Emilia Fahlin wins the road title in Sweden. On a difficult course, she took part in a good breakaway with Emma Johansson and Susanne Ljungskog. She fell behind on the two climbs, but managed to catch up on the flat. With two kilometers to go, she launched a decisive attack, taking advantage of the misunderstanding between the other two competitors. In the German time trial, Judith Arndt was beaten by Hanka Kupfernagel. In Denmark, Linda Villumsen won the time trial by more than two minutes over the runner-up and the road race.
July: Tour of Italy and Tour of Thuringia The Giro d'Italia kicks off on July 5 with a prologue. Ina-Yoko Teutenberg wins the sprint the next day and takes the leader's jersey. She also won the next two stages. The fourth stage was very selective and cost the team time. In the time trial on stage five, Linda Villumsen came fourth42. On the final stage, Ina-Yoko Teutenberg won again. In the final overall classification, Arndt is the team leader in tenth place.
At the same time, Mara Abbott won the first stage of the Tour de Feminin - Krásná Lípa. In 2008, the Tour of Thuringia was seen as the ultimate preparation for the Olympic Games. On the third stage, Judith Arndt finished sixth and third overall. The following day, she broke away with Trixi Worrack and Grete Treier, only to come back and overtake another breakaway. She took second place in the three-way sprint behind Grete Treier, who was also ahead of her in the overall classification. The time trial on stage five, in which Judith Arndt came third, enabled her to take the overall lead. On the final stage, Trixi Worrack went all out to win the overall classification, beating Judith Arndt in a sprint. However, this was not enough to dethrone her, and Judith Arndt went on to win the Tour of Thuringia for the second year running.
The Open de Suède Vårgårda takes place in the last days of July. In the road race, Kim Anderson breaks away with five other riders with four laps to go out of a field of twelve. With two laps to go, she broke away from the group with Kori Seehafer, who beat her in a sprint. In the team time trial, Team Columbia is second behind Cervélo Lifeforce.
August: Olympic Games and Route de France