PDM (cycling team)

Roy Schuiten was team manager and Jan Gisbers directeur sportif in 1986. Gisbers took over as the team manager the following year and remained until 1992. He was joined by Piet van der Kruijs and Ferdi van den Haute. The team was owned by Manfred Krikke, of Veltec Rentmeester.

The team was successful in classics and had a rider second overall in the Tour de France in 1987 with Pedro Delgado and 1988 with Steven Rooks. It also had third place with Erik Breukink in 1990. It won the Tour team classification in 1988 and 1989. PDM rider Gert-Jan Theunisse was second in the 1988 Tour de France, battling former PDM teammate Pedro Delgado, when he tested positive for testosterone and received a 10-minute penalty.[1]

The team dropped out of the 1991 Tour de France with reported food poisoning.[2] Team members and team doctor Wim Sanders said in a TV documentary in 2008[3] that the cause was careless storage of Intralipid, a nutritional aid with which riders had been injected.[4] The team continued one more year, after which the sponsor sold the team to Festina.

In November 1997 Cyclingnews.com reported an inquiry in The Netherlands,[5] which appeared to reveal doping in the PDM team. Wim Sanders, the doctor from 1990 to 1991, was the centre of the investigation, which was initiated when the general manager of the team, Manfred Krikke, called the Fiscal Information and Investigation Service to investigate. It was said Sanders supplied anabolic steroids and EPO to the team and was responsible for the intralipid affair of the 1991 Tour de France.[5] According to Cyclingnews.com, 1990 was the height of the drug taking in the team and two riders stopped with heart problems;[5] whether this refers to stopping professional cycling or performance-enhancing drugs was unclear. Gisbers denied knowledge of doping.[4]