UCI 2005 Protour cycling teams, web site review and links
Recent Updates 
Davitamon-Lotto[ http://www.davitamon-lotto.com ] Languages: Dutch, French, English One the whole this is a pretty rough site to get round. The main purple color makes reading difficult and the headings and layout are pretty overwhelming. Its a shame because the content isnlt so bad with lots of news and results. The team section could do with a bit more photos. Quick-Step[ http://www.quickstepcycling.be/ ] Languages: Dutch, French, English Very similar in layout to the Davitamon site although the colours much easier on the eye. Photos are a bit amateurish but there seems to be some regular news posts and the calendar's quite neat. The fan zone seems to offer a bit and I like the polls idea. The design was compatible with Safari browser. Euskadi[ http://www.fundacioneuskadi.com/ ] Languages: Basque, Spanish, French From what I could understand from the French version there seems to be quite a bit of content here. Again the photos don't live up to much but the riders profiles are fairly decent with palmares for the team. Saunier Duval[ http://www.saunierduvalteam.com/ ] Languages: Spanish Clean looking site with decent rider profiles and a nice looking, if not that frequent, news section. Theres a good section that profiles some of the teams riders in a sort of Q and A session. The amjority of the photos are pretty poor although are a few high resolutions images here and there. Team CSC[ http://www.riis-cycling.com ] Languages: Danish, English This has obivously had some money thrown at it and it looks great. Clean design, really well set out the navigation is very clear. There's always something recent in the news section and the Photo gallery is one of the best team gallerys around. There loads of stuff for fans with forum, newsletter, wallpapers and screensavers. Liberty Seguros[ http://www.libertysegurosteam.com/ ] Languages: Spanish, English The best thing about this site is the team profile where you can then link onto New, Photos, Results and Personal and Professional profiles. The images are a mix of fairly high resolution ZIPed TIFFs and some medium sized JPEGs. News wasn't particulary recent at the time of writing (17/01/2005). lles Balears[ http://www.illesbalears-banesto.com ] Languages: Spanish, English, Catalan, German, French The splash for this site is a realy awful Flash animation and once your in the site it doesn't let up. Flash banners of riders and sponsors adorn the site and make it really annoying to read. The content however is OK and its provided in 5 languages. The photo gallery is huge, although not all the picture are great. Discovery Channel[ http://www.teamdiscoverychannel.com/ ] Languages: American!/5 The site of the Tour champion and it shows. A huge site full of videos, Flash animation, sponsor information and lots of adverts. There is some interesting content here but you have to look, and with all the animation it can be a bit frustrating waiting for bikes and riders to roll across the page. A lot of the Armstrong stuff is covered at The Paceline. News is not the most frequently updated and the the adverts and banners are intrusive, but what do you expect from cyclings biggest team. RabobankLanguages: Dutch and a bit of English I couldn't tell much about the site, it didn't like my browser (Safari) and the cycling didn't seem to be covered in English. LiquigasLanguages: Italian I really couldn't find much on this site, it maybe that my Italian is not up to scratch but it really seems that the cycling team only get a passing mention. Maybe they have a seperate site I haven't found. |
Lampre-CaffitaLanguages: Italian, English Much better than last years edition, the site has improved navigation and better team photos. The news is frequent and up-to-date. Some areas are still under construction but indication are there's lots more content to come. In the photo section you'll find a rare picture of Simoni and Cunego riding side by side and managing to maintain a smile! Fassa Bortolo[ http://www.fassabortolo.com/ ] Languages: English, Italian , French I really like this site. The design not great but the rider profiles and photos are excellent. The rider profiles have frame size and geometry which maybe be of interest to techies. The season photos are really good quality ZIPed JPEGs and well worth downloading. If they could just make the text and site images that little bit bigger. Domina Vacanze[ http://www.dominavacanzeproteam.it/proteam.htm ] Languages: Italian An improvement on last year. This has less content but a nice section on rider profiles. The news is up to date but the photos are too small to be worth spending time browsing. T-Mobile[ http://www.t-mobile-team.com ] Languages: German, English Another site which has benefitted from the wealth and investment from the sponsor. It's got less adverts than the other biggie (discovery Channel) and although the navigation can occasionally throw you its well set out and has buckets of content, great rider profiles and high resolution ZIPed photos. Gerolsteiner[ http://www.gerolsteiner.de/ ] Languages: German Nice looking, spacious site with good photos and rider information. News is not the most current. fdjeux.com[ http://cyclisme.fdjeux.com ] Languages: French Lively site that compliments the image of the sponsor and that of the team. The news seem fairly frequent and the rider profiles have ar fair bit of content. Photos are pretty poor with the exception of two of the nicer wallpapers I have found on team sites. CofidisLanguages: French, English, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Portugese Recently relaunched for the new season. The site has the usual mix of rider info, sponsor information and results. The photo gallery is huge and although not massive there are some really nice photos here. Credit Agricole[ http://www.credit-agricole.fr/ ] Languages: French, some English Not much here from what I could see. There's some OK rider profiles and a high resolution team photo, that's about it. There's more material of interest in their Tour 2004 site Bouygues TelecomLanguages: French It looks like Eurosport are hosting this site on behalf of the team. The site looks nice and there's already a fair bit of content on it. But its let down by some clunky rollover navigation that renders really poorly in some browers. Phonak Cycling Team[ http://www.phonak-cycling.ch/ ] Languages: English, French, German A late entry after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) upheld their appeal, the site does provide three language but only for the navigation. Photos are ok but nothing special and the news does seems to be updated fairly frequently. But then given recent events they do have a lot to write about! |