Bob Stapleton (born April 1, 1958, in
Riverside, California
Riverside is a city in and the county seat of Riverside County, California, United States. It is named for its location beside the Santa Ana River. As of the 2020 census, the city has a population of 314,998. It is the most populous city in th ...
) is an American entrepreneur and the former team owner of
cycling team
A cycling team is a group of cycle sport, cyclists who join a team or are acquired and train together to compete in bicycle racing, bicycle races whether amateur or professional – and the supporting personnel. Cycling teams are most important i ...
. Stapleton was previously the team manager of when it was known as . The transition to owner occurred on November 28, 2007 when
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
telecom company
Deutsche Telekom
Deutsche Telekom AG (, ; often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a partially state-owned German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn and the largest telecommunications provider in Europe by revenue. It was formed in 199 ...
ended its sponsorship after numerous doping allegations surfaced throughout 2007.
Stapleton began his relationship with
T-Mobile T-Mobile is the brand of telecommunications by Deutsche Telekom
Deutsche Telekom AG (, ; often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a partially state-owned German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn and the largest telec ...
when his communications company
VoiceStream Wireless was bought in 2000 by Deutsche Telekom for $50 billion. The original purchase price of Voicestream was $50B. At closing, DT stock had gone down and the value was less. VoiceStream was renamed
T-Mobile USA
T-Mobile US, Inc. is an American wireless network operator headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. Its majority shareholder and namesake is the German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom. T-Mobile is the second largest wireless carrier ...
. He later became involved with cycling by founding High Road Sports Inc., which managed T-Mobile Team (both men's and women's) until 2007.
After the ''
Operación Puerto'' scandal touched big names of the men's team such as
Jan Ullrich
Jan Ullrich (; born 2 December 1973) is a German former professional road bicycle racer. Ullrich won gold and silver medals in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, Sydney. He won the 1999 Vuelta a España and the HEW Cyclassics in fro ...
and
Óscar Sevilla, and following disputes among riders and managing staff, there were major changes in both the team's roster and management, and Stapleton was appointed team manager.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stapleton, Bob
American sports businesspeople
1958 births
Living people