What Sets Us Apart

High Road Sports is founded on the values of clean and fair sport, personal commitment, and placing ones goals beside those of the team. Racing as Team Columbia, we seek to create an environment where success happens using the best methods, technology and personal development tools found across the world of sport. Our goals are to make change happen, to win by fair means, and represent the best aspects of sport. We are open to new ideas, direct in our actions, and fair in our respect for the views of others.

Columbia Sportswear's sponsorship of Team Columbia provides an ideal opportunity for a major American company to support outdoor athletes who demand excellence of themselves and from their high-performance products. Columbia is pleased to promote a sport that is beloved by millions of people around the globe who enjoy the outdoors and who deserve high-performance apparel for their own activities. By sponsoring one of the top men's and women's professional cycling teams in the world, Columbia can leverage the international popularity and broad media reach of cycling to increase awareness of the Columbia brand.

Who We Are

Team Columbia, owned and operated by High Road Sports Inc., is made up of talented young cyclists supported by a leadership group of experienced riders and management. We have 21 athletes aged 26 and under, making us the youngest team at the top level of professional cycling.

We count thirteen current national champions, 12 former national champions, and seven current or former world champions on our roster We proudly represent national champions of Australia, Germany, Great Britain, Sweden, Denmark, Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Italy and Norway.

In 2008, Team Columbia has won more races than any other team in professional cycling, with the men tallying 85 wins including exciting stage wins in the Giro d'Italia, Tour de France, wins in the Fleche Wallone, Schildeprijs, Tour de Georgia, Tour of California, Tour of Germany, Tour of Ireland and the Dauphine Libere among others. The women's team has 64 wins including three rounds of the UCI World Cup Series and the overall series, stage wins in Tour de l'Aude, Giro d'Italia, Holland Ladies Tour, Redlands Classic and the overall wins in Tour of Montreal, Thueringen, Route de France, Giro della Toscana and the Triple Crown. They are ranked the number one team in the world in the UCI World rankings.

We continue to focus on the emerging young stars in cycling. With the likes of exciting young talent including Edvald Boassen Hagen, Mark Cavendish, Thomas Lovkvist and Tony Martin on the men's team, along with Linda Villumsen, current U.S. Champion Mara Abbott and German Champion Luise Keller in the women's team, it can be said that the team has perhaps the best group of young riders in the sport.

Our young talent is be supported by strong veteran leadership including American star George Hincapie. George has completed 12 editions of the Tour de France and has been instrumental in overall victories in eight of those. Along with his own ambitions in the classics and the Tour de France, he also leads the team with enthusiasm and shares his experience with the younger riders on the team. He joins other team leaders such as Kim Kirchen, Roger Hammond and Marco Pinotti in the men's team and Judith Arndt, Ina-Yoko Teutenberg and Chantal Beltman in the women's team. The great mixture of youth and experience creates an ideal environment of experience and enthusiasm and of skill and energy.

Leadership in Anti-Doping

We place ourselves at the front in a relentless fight against doping. We have introduced a new comprehensive and independent anti-doping program that is managed by Agency for Cycling Ethics (ACE). Through this stringent program, each member of the team gives a minimum of 26 random blood and urine tests per year. The volume of test results enables ACE to build extremely detailed longitudinal profiles of each rider so that they can detect small changes in body chemistry that might be caused by doping.

The profiles are used in conjunction with the new World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) biological passports which were introduced at the beginning of the 2008 season.

We believe frequent and comprehensive testing using profiles that detect small changes in body chemistry are invaluable tools to ensure the future of the team and the future of the sport. The testing keeps us more informed about the conduct and health of our athletes.

The governing body for cycling, the International Cycling Union (UCI) comments on this initiative:

High Road Sports continues to demonstrate leadership in this regard. By initiating a comprehensive team-based anti-doping program delivered by ACE, by supporting the UCI in their broad anti-doping efforts and most importantly, by actively working to create a doping-free culture within their team, they are a role model for other teams to follow.

Management

We believe that common goals and unity of action are the essence of team success. Led by American entrepreneur Bob Stapleton, the team has been recognized for driving the sport into a promising future, where success is measure not just by winning but by winning by fair means. Our organization focuses on providing the athletes with the right attitude, tools and support to achieve their goals and the goals of the team.

Our sports managers come from six different countries and bring comprehensive real world knowledge and experience to the team. We have the depth and breadth of experience necessary to develop athletes from any country and any skill for any competition.

We have a common set of beliefs that guide our actions: Only with success won by fair means can we create change, inspire people and shape the champions of the future.

Tools & Technology

We want to give our riders every chance of success. We constantly seek the best tools and technology available in cycling and across the world of sport. We work closely with our partners to continually improve the products we use and choose partners and suppliers whose seek to provide the best products, solutions and methods to their customers and our team.

We are supported by experts in their fields of exercise science, nutrition and orthopedics as well as specialists in cycling who provide our athletes with specific training programs and methods to develop each individual. We use the data produced by the SRM power meter to analyze performance in training and in racing and as a guidance tool for our athletes during training.

We are continually working with new ways to enhance recovery from training and racing and of increasing core strength to prevent injury and to maximize the transfer of power from the athlete's bodies to the pedals. We believe in the power of mental training and motivational support. We provide our riders with expert support as well as the undivided attention of our management team to the mental strength and health of all of our athletes.

An example of team success augmented through technology partners is our partnership with Columbia Sportswear. Team Columbia will benefit from Columbia's advanced technology in the field of seasonal and specialty outdoor products such as their line of Omni-Shade™ products for all-day sun protection and Omni-Tech™ products for waterproof, breathable rain protection.