Fassa Bortolo (2000–2005) was a professional road bicycle racing team founded in 2000 and led by Giancarlo Ferretti. Dubbed the 'Silver Team', it managed to be one of the most successful teams of the era, not in the least due to top sprinter Alessandro Petacchi. In its six competitive years, Fassa Bortolo won over 200 races, including stages in all three Grand Tours. It was one of the inaugural 20 UCI ProTour teams in 2005.
Fassa Bortolo stopped the sponsorship of the team after 2005. Efforts to find a new co-sponsor for 2006 proved unsuccessful. On October 14, 2005, a man claiming to represent proposed new sponsor Sony Ericsson turned out to be an imposter, leaving all staff and riders unemployed.
Petacchi and some of his helpers moved to the new Team Milram, a continuation of the Domina Vacanze Team. The other Fassa Bortolo riders all moved to different teams.
Contents
Team 2005
The main part of the riders signed early contracts with new teams for 2006, and eventually all riders found new teams.
National champions
2001
1st Lithuanian National Road Championship, Raimondas Rumšas
1st Russian National Road Championship, Dimitri Konyshev
2002
1st Ukrainian National Road Championship, Serhiy Honchar
2003
1st Slovenian National Road Championship, Tadej Valjavec
2004
1st Luxembourg National Road Championship, Kim Kirchen
1st Swiss National Time Trial Championship, Fabian Cancellara