After Patrik Sinkewitz's doping case before the 2007 Tour de France, the Deutsche Telekom board pulled the ripcord and ended its long-standing sponsorship of Team T-Mobiles. At the time, the team was managed by US billionaire Bob Stapleton, whose operating company subsequently took over the racing team's licence. However, initially without a main sponsor: it was not until later in the year that Stapleton secured the outdoor clothing company Columbia Sports from the USA.
As the majority of the riders from the T-Mobile days were still part of the squad, the predominantly young team was one of the most successful teams from the start of the season. This also continued at the Tour de France, where Mark Cavendish's star rose in 2008. An overview of how the riders from the Tour squad at the time have fared since then.
Mark Cavendish
A place in the history books is certain for the Brit. With his stage win in Saint-Vulbas at the 2024 Tour de France, Cavendish took his 35th stage win in France - replacing Eddy Merckx in the all-time leaderboard. The British sprinter is now the most successful stage winner in Tour history.
However, it was 2008 that really got the 39-year-old's great career rolling. Cavendish was already recognised as a huge talent back then and made his Tour debut for Team T-Mobile in 2007 at the age of 22. However, his triumph at the Tour of France only began a year later, on 9 July with the 5th stage to Chateauroux.
It was a memorable stage. The peloton only caught the last breakaway rider, Nicolas Vogondy, 200 metres before the finish. At that point, however, Cavendish had already been put in an ideal position by rider Gerald Ciolek, allowing him to take his maiden victory with a deep, aerodynamic sprint style. Three more stage wins were to follow in the course of that tour. However, he dropped out before stage 15. Up to and including 2013, Cavendish increased his number of Tour stage wins to 25.
However, his hitherto steep career path subsequently experienced various setbacks. Cavendish was written off several times due to an Epstein-Barr virus and numerous crashes in the following years. But the Briton always proved to be resilient and a comeback specialist. Alongside his Tour stage record, this is the greatest legacy of his career. Cavendish announced the end of his career at the end of the 2024 season. Little is yet known about his future plans.
Kim Kirchen
The Luxembourger went into the 2008 Tour de France as Team Columbia's man for the overall classification, wore the yellow jersey for four days and finished the tour in seventh place. Kirchen was regarded as one of the most versatile riders in the peloton at the time, also winning the Fleche Wallonne and the Tour of the Basque Country in 2008.
However, his career came to an abrupt end in 2010 after a move to Team Katusha: he suffered a cardiac arrest at the Tour de Suisse and had to be resuscitated. He was in a coma for several days. He never returned to the peloton afterwards.
Since 2015, the 46-year-old has been working at the Luxembourg Ministry of Sport, where he deals with political issues relating to the development and promotion of sports facilities. However, he continues to follow professional cycling: he regularly comments on the big races on the calendar for Luxembourg TV channel RTL.
Marcus Burghardt
The 2008 Tour de France brought Burghardt the greatest success of his career with a stage win in St. Etienne. He defeated his breakaway companion Carlos Barredo in a two-man sprint on the 18th stage. Burghardt then continued his career until 2021 and proved to be an important helper in the BMC and Bora-Hansgrohe teams during that time.
In the 2021 season, he suffered several fractures in a crash at the Tour of Poland. As he did not receive a new contract with Bora-Hansgrohe for 2022 and his rehab progress stalled after his crash, Burghardt announced his retirement from professional cycling in spring 2022.
In the same year, he was co-opted and elected as a member of the Presidium of the German Cycling Federation (BDR). In 2023, he took over the position of Vice President Contract Sports in the association. Burghardt has also been organising the Shades of Speed everyman event since 2022.
Gerald Ciolek
At the age of 18, Ciolek secured the title of German Champion in 2005, followed by the U23 World Championship title a year later. Successes that immediately linked Ciolek's career to huge expectations, which the now 38-year-old was never able to fulfil.
Nevertheless, he went on to have a remarkable career, which always included big victories, especially when nobody expected Ciolek. His sensational victory in the snow chaos at Milan-San Remo in 2013 is representative of this, as is his stage win at the Vuelta a Espana in 2009.
At the 2008 Tour de France, he acted as Cavendish's lead-out man. At the age of 30, he finally drew a line under his career in 2017 and initially took a step back from professional cycling. For some years now, however, Ciolek has been involved in grassroots sport and young talent. In 2019, he took over the sporting management of the German Continental team Dauer-Akkon. Ciolek has also been involved in the Cologne community project RennRad Cycling Club since 2019. He is also a trained barista.
Bernhard Eisel
After ending his career in 2019, Eisel joined the Eurosport TV channel as a pundit, a role he still fulfils today. He also worked for the streaming channel Global Cycling Network. The 43-year-old has also been part of the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team as Sports Director since 2022.
His active time is primarily linked to Cavendish's successes; he rarely won races himself. However, his name is on the list of winners of Gent-Wevelgem (2010). Particularly from 2008 to 2011 with Team Columbia (later HTC-Highroad), Eisel played a huge part in Cavendish's many stage wins with his experience in the sprint train.
Eisel and Cavendish then joined Team Sky in 2012 and later rode together again at Dimension Data. The two also have a close bond outside of the sport: in 2013, Cavendish acted as Eisel's best man.
Adam Hansen
The Australian continues to be omnipresent in professional cycling. Following the end of his career, Hansen took over the chairmanship of the Cyclistes Professionnels Associes (CPA) in March 2023. He is therefore the voice and representative of the professionals in the dialogue with race directors, the world federation and other stakeholders - and has so far been much more vocal and demanding than his predecessor Gianni Bugno.
Hansen began his active career with Team T-Mobile in 2007 and rode his first Tour de France for Columbia in 2008. The now 43-year-old is best remembered for taking part in 20 consecutive Grand Tours between 2011 and 2018 and finishing them all - a record. He won a stage at the Giro d'Italia in 2013 and the Vuelta a Espana in 2014.
At the end of 2020, however, his long-standing team Lotto Soudal no longer extended his contract. Hansen then ended his career and switched to triathlon. However, the now 53-year-old was already busy during his professional career and produced his own carbon cycling shoes, owned his own fashion brand "Hanseeno" and invested in property projects in his adopted home country of the Czech Republic.
George Hincapie
As a veteran, the US-American also fulfilled a valuable role as a helper in Columbia's Tour squad in 2008. He took part in the Tour of France a total of 17 times, which is only surpassed by Sylvain Chavanel (18 starts). Hincapie made the majority of his Tour starts alongside Lance Armstrong for the US Postal team.
In the course of the USADA investigation into Armstrong's Tour victories, Hincapie confessed in 2012 that he had doped up until 2006 and also implicated Armstrong in his statements. He himself received a six-month ban and lost his Tour de France stage win from 2005, after which he ended his career in 2012.
Today, Hincapie is nevertheless a close confidant of Armstrong. The two are now business partners and Hincapie is a regular co-host on Armstrong's podcast "The Move".
Hincapie joined his brother Richard's sportswear company "Hincapie Sportswaear" in 1998 while still an active cyclist. Both also run the Hotel Domestique in Greenville. After the end of his career, Hincapie also established the popular sporting event "Gran Fondo Hincapie", which has now grown to five events a year in the USA.
Thomas Löfkvist
In the early 2000s, the Swede was regarded as one of the greatest talents in cycling. However, he was never able to live up to these high expectations. At Team Columbia, however, hopes were still high for Löfkvist at the time.
However, he finished that year's Tour de France in an unremarkable 39th place and later rode for Team Sky and IAM Cycling. He ended his career in 2014 due to chronic fatigue. "My body says I should stop," he said at the time. His greatest success was the overall victory at the Tour Mediterraneen in 2013.
After his active career, he held the position of sports director at the Swedish Continental team Tre Berg-Bianchi until 2017. He then went on to study management at the University of Uppsala in Sweden and worked as an individual coach for a number of Swedish cyclists. However, not much is publicly known about Löfkvist's further professional career.
Kanstantin Sivtsov
During his career, the Belarusian was particularly appreciated for his time trial qualities. However, he did not make much of an appearance at the 2008 Tour de France, although he did fulfil his role as a helper.
In 2018, the now 42-year-old tested positive for EPO - at the time he was riding for Bahrain-Merida. He was subsequently given a four-year ban and officially ended his career in 2020. According to his profile on the Linkedin website, Sivtsov is now a manager at the Kosta Group, based in Florida.
