TI-Raleigh: Cycling's First Superteam

TI-Raleigh was a game changer. Most big professional cycling teams from the 1940s onwards were built around one man. He was the leader and the rest were there to support him. All the post-War greats; Fausto Coppi, Louison Bobet, Rik Van Looy, Jacques Anquetil and Eddy Merckx had teams built around them. TI-Raleigh changed that. TI-Raleigh showed there was another way to win big bike races, and it became the number one team of its generation because of it. Yes there would be a team leader going into a race, but TI-Raleigh was adaptable. It could switch; helpers became leaders and leaders…