Gallery: 25 years of Landbouwkrediet

The final stage of the Tour of Taihu on Sunday will mark the last hurrah for the Crelan-Euphany team. Former team member and multiple stage winner at this year's race in China, Yuriy Metlushenko, has already paid tribute to one of the pillars of Northern European racing over the last quarter century, and now it's our turn.

The team was originally known as Saxon in 1992. Three years later, Tönnisteiner became the headline sponsor and were replaced by Landbouwkrediet in 2001. In its final season the team was known as Crelan-Euphony. Although not making WorldTour headlines year in year out, any riders who have done a racing apprenticeship in Belgium know that when Landbouwkrediet move towards the front in a pro-kermesse, things are about to get serious.

As part of the team's long relationship with Colnago they have also become synonymous with Ernesto Colnago's famous three leaf clover as well some of his iconic framesets such as the carbon lugged C-50.

Aside from delivering road riders like Yaroslav Popovych to a podium finish at the Giro in 2003, the Belgian team has remained ardent supporters of Cyclo-cross with multiple World Champion and World Cup winner Sven Nys flying the flag for the team since 2008.

To pay tribute in our own way, we've scoured the Cyclingnews annals to bring back a few memories of one of the teams that professional cycling will miss.

 

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