The team had a continuous presence at the top of the professional peloton and continued to sign the emerging German cyclists of the times with Andreas Klöden in 1998, Jörg Jaksche in 1999, Matthias Kessler in 2000 and Stefan Schumacher in 2002 to name but a few. In addition the team signed many successful non-German riders such as Georg Totschnig, Alexander Vinokourov, Cadel Evans, Santiago Botero and Paolo Savoldelli.
In 2005 a film titled "Hell on Wheels" was released. It is a record of the 100th anniversary (but only the 90th running because of World War I and World War II) of the Tour de France in 2003 from the perspective of the then-Team Telekom.
From 2004, the team changed its name to T-Mobile. Jan Ullrich returned to the team. The team achieved a great number of success, among which was Steffan Wesemanns win in the Ronde van Vlaanderen. Coming up to the 2004 Tour de France, Kloden became German road race champion and Ullrich won the Tour de Suisse and raced the 2004 Tour de France as team leader, while Vinokourov did not ride the Tour de France for the team. Jan Ullrich finished fourth, while Andreas Klöden was the best placed rider of the team in second place. T-Mobile Team won the team classification, as the overall strongest team of the 2004 Tour. In the spring season of 2005, Vinokourov won the Liège–Bastogne–Liège classic race. Ullrich, as the team leader, finished 3rd overall in the 2005 Tour de France. Alexandre Vinokourov rode in support, and finished fifth as he won two stages, including the final stage on the Champs-Elysees. Italian rider Giuseppe Guerini also won a stage and T-Mobile Team matched their 2004 feat by once again winning the team classification in 2005. Zabel won the Paris–Tours for the third time at the end of the season.
In July 2005, during the 2005 Tour, Vinokourov's contract was running out and people wondered if he was to stay with T-Mobile. With four days left of the 2005 Tour, he made an announcement that he would leave the team to pursue his own chances of winning the Tour de France as a team captain and after the Tour he joined the Liberty Seguros team. After 13 years with Team Telekom and T-Mobile Team, Erik Zabel also left in 2005 to ride for the newly formed Team Milram. Before the 2006 season, Walter Godefroot stepped down and Olaf Ludwig became the new T-Mobile team manager.
In the most controversial scandal since the 1998 tour, thirteen riders were expelled from the 2006 Tour de France stemming from a Spanish doping scandal, on the eve of Strasbourg prologue to the 93rd edition. Jan Ullrich, one of the favorites to win the race, was among those excluded from the Tour. Another T-Mobile rider, Oscar Sevilla, was also expelled, leaving the team starting with only seven riders.
On 9 July, the team announced the dismissal of its sporting director, Rudy Pevenage, for his implication with former Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich in a Spanish blood doping scandal. "The contract linking T-Mobile to Pevenage has been retrospectively stopped on 30 June," the team's general manager, Olaf Ludwig, said.
On July 21, 2006, T-Mobile fired Jan Ullrich from the team pending the doping investigation.
At the 2006 Tour de France, T-Mobile won the team classification for the third consecutive year, Andreas Klöden reached the podium (3rd place) for the second time, Matthias Kessler won Stage 3, Serhiy Honchar won two individual time trials (Stages 7 and 19) and wore the yellow jersey for 3 days (after Stages 7–9).
After the Tour de France, the team completely changed; Team manager Olaf Ludwig left the team and was replaced by Bob Stapleton. Rolf Aldag, Allan Peiper and Tristan Hoffman became directeur sportifs. As already discussed Ullrich, Sevilla and Pevenage were dismissed from the team. Several riders who had been with the team for a long time such as Steffen Wesemann, Andreas Klöden and Matthias Kessler left or their contracts were not extended. Jörg Ludewig was put on suspension and his contract was not increased in connection with intention to dope previously in his career and before he joined T-Mobile. Eddy Mazzoleni who was in his first year for the team would also leave. The contracts of Bram Schmitz and Bas Gilling were not renewed. Dr. Lothar Heinrich, the team doctor since 1995, and Dr. Andreas Schmid set up a new comprehensive testing system. Following the revelations that came out of the Operación Puerto investigation, Heinrich allegedly nearly quit the sport but instead he joined with Stapleton and other team staff to create a new system of internal controls and health checks that he insisted would demonstrate that T-Mobile riders were clean and to restore credibility to the sport.
In May 2007, several former riders admitted using banned substances (including EPO) while riding for the team in the mid 1990s, including Erik Zabel, Rolf Aldag, Brian Holm, Bjarne Riis, Bert Dietz, Udo Bölts and Christian Henn including the seasons in which Riis and Ullrich won the Tour de France. Team doctors Andreas Schmid and Lothar Heinrich also confessed to participating and administering banned substances. The latter was Team Telekom's sporting director until May 3, 2007 when he was suspended following allegations published in former team member Jef d'Hont's book.
In an effort to present a renewed image the team brought a young team to the 2007 Tour de France, and promoted a drug-free attitude and image. Despite this, team member Patrik Sinkewitz tested positive for elevated testosterone during a training camp. The test results were only announced when Sinkiewitz had dropped out of the Tour because of injury. He was still in hospital when he was suspended from Team T-Mobile, and was dismissed on 31 July 2007.
In November 2007, Deutsche Telekom AG announced that it was to end sponsorship of professional cycling with immediate effect. The team continued under the name "Team High Road" through June 2008. The team changed nationality in February 2008, switching from Germany to the United States.
The team continued thanks to funding solely from the team owner Bob Stapleton, as the team did not have enough time to gather sponsors for the new year. The team had a successful start to the year with Luxembourg rider Kim Kirchen winning the classic La Flèche Wallonne. Results like this and also High-Road's performance at the Giro d'Italia helped the team secure a sponsor for the end of the year
On June 15, 2008 Columbia Sportswear announced a three year sponsorship of the team beginning on July 5, the start of the Tour de France. The team's new name is "Team Columbia". The sponsorship includes both the men's and women's teams. The announcement of this new deal with Columbia coincided with a highly successful Tour, in which the team won 5 individual stages (four of which went to British sprinter Mark Cavendish) as well as team leader Kim Kirchen leading the general classification in the Tour de France for four days in addition to leading the points classification in the Tour de France.
The team capped off a successful 2008 by finishing second to Team CSC in the CQ Team Ranking.
On June 29, 2009 HTC announced a three year sponsorship of the team beginning with the 2009 Tour de France. The team's new name is "Team Columbia-HTC." Like the Columbia Sportswear sponsorship, the HTC sponsorship includes both the men's and women's teams. The team enjoyed great success at the 2009 Tour de France with Mark Cavendish winning 6 stages over the course of the 3 weeks. The most memorable of these was his victory on the Champs-Élysées in Paris where he won by a huge margin; almost 30m, with his own lead out man, Mark Renshaw having enough time to come in 2nd with his arms raised. A documentary film called Chasing Legends was later released that covered the 2009 tour through the eyes of HTC-Columbia.