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LATEST NEWS: LIVE FROM LAKE COMO: BIKE MANUFACTURERS AND TEAM SPONSORSHIPS
By Gregor Brown
September 2, 2010
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Cervélo spoiled the bicycle manufactures' party when it announced last week that it will end its sponsorship of its racing team. Only two years after it begun, with the contract of Tour de France winner Carlos Sastre, Cervélo TestTeam will slam on its brakes at year's end.
Cervélo TestTeam's departure will close one of the most glorious chapters in recent history for team sponsorship by bicycle manufactures. Besides Cervélo's team – which boasts Carlos Sastre, Thor Hushovd and Heinrich Haussler – this season included teams with BMC, De Rosa, Colnago and Trek as title sponsors.
BMC Racing, sponsored by Andy Rhys' Swiss bicycle company, grew rapidly over the last year from a small Swiss-American, second division team. It kept its second division status, but signed reigning world champion, Cadel Evans, George Hincapie and Alessandro Ballan. Evans paid back Rhys investment handsomely with a win at the La Flèche Wallonne one-day classic, a stage at the Giro d'Italia and a day in the leader's pink jersey, and a day in the leader's yellow jersey at the sport's biggest race, the Tour de France.
Italy's Bianchi was the last bicycle manufacture to pay for the title sponsorship spot. It saved the day for Jan Ullrich and his team in 2003 when German company Coast ran out of funds ahead of the Tour de France. Bianchi rescued the team, but also relived the heydays of team sponsorship by bicycle manufacturers.
Bianchi itself sponsored Fausto Coppi's team in the post-World War II years and won the Tour de France with him in 1952. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s other bicycle manufactures followed the trend: Peugeot, Mercier, Gazelle, De Gribaldy, Lejeune, Flandria and Gitane.
Canada's Cervélo got its start many years later, making funky aero bikes for time trialists and tri-athletes. In 2003, it made its first big impact on international cycling when it joined Bjarne Riis' team as the bicycle sponsor. Impressed, Riis kept the deal going and helped put Cervélo on the top of the world with Carlos Sastre's 2008 Tour de France victory.
One month later, Cervélo announced that it would start a team in 2009 and that it signed Sastre.
"Race performance is only one component of Cervélo TestTeam," Cervélo co-founder Gerard Vroomen explained.
"Our riders will also be involved in field-testing and providing technical feedback. In addition, they will participate in activities with our customers, making them more accessible to cycling fans."
Vroomen's riders made an immediate impact out in the field. Thor Hushovd's stage win at the Tour of California was the first big win, but there were also three stage wins at the Giro d'Italia and two at the Tour de France last year. This year was not as successful, but still Hushovd won one of the most dramatic stages Tour de France. He broke free with a small group on stage three, conquered the cobblestone roads of Northern France and won in Arenberg.
Cervélo, however, squeezed the brakes on team last week, just over month after Hushovd's win.
"Certain subtle changes in the rules that govern pro cycling, have established a trend towards bigger budgets to ensure participation in all the big races, and this is not something with which we are comfortable," read a Cervélo press release. "We were okay with the significant commitment we originally made to the team, but to increase it is not prudent."
Cervélo's budgetary problems caught the ear of Jonathan Vaughters, team manager of USA's first division team, Garmin-Transitions. He struck a deal to allow Cervélo to replace his bike sponsor Felt and to join on as a secondary sponsor for next season, becoming Garmin-Cervélo.
Vaughters is happy (though Jim Felt might not be), Cervélo will continue in cycling to as a technical sponsor, but many of Cervélo TestTeam's riders and staff are scrabbling to find work. Sastre is fine, he signed a contract with team Geox before Cervélo made its announcement to quit.
Garmin-Cervélo only has a few vacant spots to fill because the International Cycling Union (UCI) limits the number of riders in a first division team to 30. Luckily, there teams expanding – Geox and Fly V Australia – and teams forming – the Luxembourg-based team of Andy Schleck. However, one has to wonder if Cervélo's failed test is a sign to come for other teams sponsored by bike manufactures. |
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