Trek-Marco Polo Cycling Team

Published by: yanyongc at 2008-09-28

TREK-MARCO POLO CYCLING TEAM


The Marco Polo Cycling Club was founded in 2000 and named after the famous traveller, Marco Polo. The mission and goals of the club were, and still are, to provide talented cyclists from non-traditional cycling countries -often not the richest countries in the world- an opportunity to develop into world-class professionals.  
 
Not long after the creation of the Marco Polo Cycling club a semi-professional team was started to stay true to its original mission. In the short time that the Marco Polo Cycling Team has been in existence, the team has raced all over the world and won many stages, stage races and classifications in countries such as: China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Morocco, Burkina Faso, and South-Korea and was also successful in race in Western Europe.
 
In 2004, Marco Polo Cycling signed a contract with the Chinese Cycling Association in an effort to recruit, train and prepare the best Chinese rider for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.  
 
In 2006, Fuyu Li from the Marco Polo Cycling Team won the All China Games, Tour of Thailand as well as numerous races throughout Europe. His hard work and success resulted in a contract with the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team for 2007, making him the first ever Chinese rider to race at the sports elite level, the UCI Pro Tour.  
 
Upon signing Li with Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team, well known for their 7 Tour de France wins by Lance Armstrong. A partnership between the two Teams was created, resulting in the formation of the 2007 Discovery Channel Marco Polo Team.


Some Past Performances:
Overall winner "Tour du Maroc"
Overall winner "Qinghai-Tibet" (China)
Overall winner "Pahang Cycle Challenge" (Malaysia)
Overall winner "Tour du Faso" (Burkina Faso, Africa) 2 times
Overall winner "Tour de Beijing" (China)
Overall winner "Tour de Korea"
Overall winner "Tour de Sri Lanka"
Overall winner "Dji Sam Soe Tour d'Indonesia"
Overall winner "Tour of Siam" (Thailand)
Overall winner "Tour de Thailand"
1st Team GC - Tour of Siam (Thailand)
2nd GC Tour of Qinghai Lake (China)
2nd GC Tour of Japan
3rd individual GC Tour of Siam (Thailand)
3rd GC Tour de Hokkaido (Japan)
3rd GC Tour de Korea
3rd GC Tour of East Java (Indonesia)
5th GC Tour of Qatar

Yanyong Charoenpong
29 September 2008
(data from Marco Polo website)