CCC TEAM

CCC is a footwear giant and a long-time sponsor of Polish cycling. It took up the mantle from BMC, the spiritual successor to the Phonak team managed by American Jim Ochowicz, whose paternal grandfather emigrated from Poland to the United States. Even though its riders are now clad in orange instead of black and red, it remains the same outfit that delivered the first Tour de France winner from the Southern Hemisphere and the world of MTB: Cadel Evans, who had been sacked from Silence–Lotto at the end of the 2009 season despite becoming world champion.

The Australian took the top step of the podium in Paris in 2011. Second in the Les Essarts team time trial (a format in which the team thrived from the very beginning), while Evans went on to triumph on the "Breton Alpe d'Huez" (Mûr-de-Bretagne) before moving within striking distance of yellow on the real Alpe d'Huez, the last climb of the 98th Tour de France. He then leapfrogged Andy Schleck in the Grenoble time trial.

The team's financial backer, Swiss billionaire Andy Rihs, was on cloud nine. After all the hard knocks of the Landis affair in 2006, this wine and cycling aficionado had sworn he would never head a team again, but he never really abandoned his riders until his death in April 2018. Evans passed on the torch to Tejay van Garderen, fifth overall and best young rider in the 2012 Tour and again fifth in 2014, and then Richie Porte, a former lieutenant of Chris Froome who also finished fifth in 2016. However, Porte crashed out of contention on the descent of Mont du Chat in 2017 and in a stage in northern France in 2018, before the race had even got to the cobblestones. CCC will not be targeting the general classification this time round, but it will be fielding Greg Van Avermaet, who already wore the yellow jersey in 2016 and 2018, as its leader.