It was a turbulent spring in 2003 for everyone involved in the then Team Coast. The German racing team of Günther Dahms and his clothing company had high ambitions and had brought Jan Ullrich onto the team for that season after a doping ban. This earned the team its first invitation to the Tour de France in 2003.
However, those responsible for the cycling project had apparently overstretched themselves financially. Due to unpaid salaries, the cycling world federation UCI initially banned the team from races in March and later in May. Shortly afterwards, the operating company filed for insolvency and dissolved Team Coast.
The team was rescued by the Dutch ex-pro Jacques Hanegraaf and the previous bike supplier Bianchi, who stepped in as financial backers and thus ensured the team's continued existence. A remarkable Tour de France followed, in which Jan Ullrich almost won the overall. However, Team Bianchi remained a short-lived story. Its involvement ended at the end of the 2003 season. An overview of what happened to the riders from Bianchi's one-off Tour squad afterwards.
Jan Ullrich
Ullrich made an impressive return to the cycling stage in 2003 in Bianchi's celeste green jersey. The now 51-year-old was never closer to breaking Lance Armstrong's superiority at the time - only the penultimate stage, an individual time trial, decided the Tour in favour of the American. However, second place was a huge success for Ullrich, which hardly anyone had previously believed he could achieve and which led him back to Team T-Mobile for 2004. In his old environment and under renewed high expectations, however, his performance stagnated - until his deep fall before the start of the 2006 Tour de France.
Ullrich was excluded from the Tour due to his involvement in the Operacion Puerto doping case. In 2012, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) found him guilty in this matter. However, Ullrich, who ended his career in 2007, refused to confess to doping for many years. What followed was a downward spiral of alcohol, drugs, car accidents, penalty orders and public ostracism.
In 2023, Ullrich made his long-awaited doping confession as part of a documentary - and appears to have put an end to his escapades. He has now been living in his home town of Merdingen again for several years, organising cycling tours and most recently working as a pundit for Eurosport during the Tour de France.
Daniel Becke
Now 46, he is best known for his success on the track: He won the world title in the team pursuit in 1999 and 2000 and also won the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000. In the years that followed, Becke increasingly tried his hand at road cycling and made his debut for Bianchi at the Tour de France in 2003; he finished the tour in 145th place.
After the racing team folded, he joined the Spanish team Illes Baleares and competed twice more in the Tour of France. Becke caused a stir when he called for an anti-doping law in a petition to the German Bundestag in 2007. He ended his career in 2008. Today, Becke is said to live in Erfurt. Little is publicly known about his professional career after cycling.
Angel Luis Casero
The Spaniard was Team Coast's big transfer coup for the 2002 season, as he joined the team as the reigning winner of the Vuelta a Espana. However, he was never quite able to fulfil the high expectations of the German team. He also remained pale in the Tour de France 2003 in Bianchi's jersey and decided to end his career in 2005.
A year later, his name surfaced in the course of the doping investigations surrounding the Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes. Today, Casero, a native of the Valencia region, is the director of the Tour of Valencia. The race was initially cancelled in 2009 due to funding problems, but from 2015 Casero endeavoured to relaunch it and brought the tour back onto the race calendar in 2016.
Felix Manuel Garcia
The 2003 season was the Spaniard's last as a professional athlete. He celebrated his greatest success with eighth place at the Vuelta a Espana 2002, and at the Tour de France 2003 Garcia acted as an important helper for Ullrich and finished the tour in 23rd place.
Garcia has been the national coach for the Spanish track cycling teams since 2022. Previously, the 56-year-old worked for the Contador Foundation in Spain for ten years and managed the regional Eboli Cycling Academy. As sports director, he also oversaw the development of Contador's Polti-Kometa team from the U23 to the Pro-Continental level. His son Raul Garcia Pierna has also been a professional since 2021, initially riding for Equipo Kern Pharma and since 2024 for the World Tour team Arkea-B&B Hotels. He took part in the Tour de France for the first time this year.
Aitor Garmendia
Garmendia also had to end his career at the end of 2003 at the age of 35, as he was unable to find a new employer after Bianchi's retirement. Until then, the Spaniard had celebrated some notable successes, including stage wins in the Tour of Germany, the Tour of Catalonia and the Criterium du Dauphine. Nothing is publicly known about what happened to the now 56-year-old after his active professional career.
Fabrizio Guidi
The Italian has remained involved in cycling to this day as sporting director. He has currently been working for UAE Team Emirates since 2021, having previously worked for Saxo-Bank (2011 to 2014) and the current EF Education EasyPost racing team (2015 to 2020). His entry into management was initially a position with Team Nippo-Endeka after the end of his career in 2008.
During his active career, Guidi stood out above all as a strong sprinter: the Italian won two stages of the Giro d'Italia and three stages of the Vuelta a Espana. He also won the Intergiro classification at the Tour of Italy three times in 1996, 1999 and 2000. After Bianchi's retirement, Guidi joined the CSC and Phonak teams, among others, but tested positive for EPO during the Tour of Germany in 2005. However, a B sample came back negative.
Thomas Liese
Now 56 years old, he took part in his only Tour de France in 2003 as Jan Ullrich's helper. After Team Bianchi folded, Liese continued his career for two more years with the German Continental team Winfix-Arnolds before ending his active career.
In 2008, the German Cycling Federation (BDR) appointed him coach of the German women's national team. However, his contract was not extended at the end of 2012. Liese then switched to the sale of cycling products, initially working for Steppenwolf Bikes and later for Mavic. Since 2019, Liese has been a brand ambassador for Flyer, a company specialising in e-bikes.
David Plaza
Plaza celebrated his greatest success in 2000 when he won the Tour of Germany. A year later, he also finished sixth in the Vuelta a Espana. At the Tour de France 2003, the strong climber from Spain again proved to be a valuable helper for Ullrich. He then ended his career in 2005 wearing the Barloworld jersey.
Plaza then disappeared from the public eye for a long time. From 2018, the 54-year-old then managed the Mexican women's team Swapit Agolico for three years. Since 2024, he has been responsible for the men's amateur team Petrolike, also from Mexico.
Tobias Steinhauser
The Steinhauser name is now back in the professional peloton, this time through Georg Steinhauser, the son of Tobias Steinhauser. And the son has already made an impression as a professional, winning a stage of the Giro d'Italia in 2024 - in front of his father, who was covering the stage as an expert for Eurosport at the time.
Tobias Steinhauser was a professional cyclist from 1996 to 2005, during which time he won the Tour of Hesse and a stage of the Tour de Suisse as a strong time trialist. He also finished fifth in the 2000 World Championship road race. At the 2003 Tour de France, Steinhauser was an important support for Bianchi, particularly in the team time trial.
After the racing team folded, Steinhauser joined Team T-Mobile with Ullrich, whose brother-in-law he is. After the end of his career, Steinhauser, a trained blacksmith, took over the management of the family business Metalltechnik Steinhauser in the Allgäu region.
