Liberty Seguros Continental
The Liberty Seguros Continental professional cycling team was a Portuguese team based in Bombarral. It was one of the European teams in UCI Continental Tour, but it was dismantled at the end of 2009 due to a doping scandal.
History
Foundation and early years
Although there was a cycling team competing at the beginning of the second half of the 20th century, the professional cycling team was founded for the 1996 season with the sponsorship of Portuguese aluminium company, LA Pecol. The group became one of the most important Portuguese squads, developing a great rivalry with Maia, another great Portuguese team.The team participated in the 2000 Vuelta a España and Andrei Zinchenko won the 14th stage, which ended in Lagos de Covadonga. The victory of the Russian,, was the first victory of a Portuguese team in the history of the Vuelta. In 2001 the team was not invited to participate in the Vuelta a España, so it pretty much just competed in the Portuguese calendar. The great rival of the LA Pecol–Bombarral the Milaneza-Maia, raced in the Vuelta.
After the 2004 season, the sponsor Pecol left the team, ending the designation LA Pecol.
Arrival of Liberty and departure of LA
With a new organization of cycling teams since 2005, the team was designated as UCI Continental category. Also that season the team received a new sponsor, the multinational Liberty Seguros, as part of the agreement, cyclists Nuno Ribeiro and Sérgio Paulinho moved to the Spanish team Liberty Seguros–Würth, a ProTour cycling team run by Manolo Saiz.In 2006, as a result of Operación Puerto, Liberty Seguros withdrew its sponsorship of the Spanish team, and the Portuguese team was the only team sponsored by the insurer.
In 2007 the team stopped being sponsored by LA Aluminios, with the team leaving the designation LA Aluminium Liberty Seguros and becoming just Liberty Seguros.