Mmmm, steak.
Cycling is in a good state at this point despite the doping scandals. It seems that there is now shortage of sponsors lining up to replace Saunier Duval after the Ricco/Piepoli debacle in the Tour. Saunier Duval is dropping sponsorship almost immediately. Scott bicycles decided to step in as title sponsor and a few secondary sponsors kicked in at the same time including American Beef. What better association would you have with drug filled bovines than drug taking athletes? Ouch.
Beef from the States has not had a great reputation in recent years and the association with cycling is interesting especially as the team is recovering from a doping scandal. American Beef has been banned from Europe and other countries because of the hormones used in the US.
Most U. S. beef cattle are implanted with synthetic hormones in feedlots prior to slaughter. On January 1, 1989 the European Economic Community (EEC) placed a ban on hormone-treated U. S. meat, preventing U. S. meat products from being sold in any European nations. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has challenged the ban and accused the EEC of unfair trade practices, but the action of European governments raises some important questions about American meat.
– Prevent Cancer
So a product with a problem with drugs is sponsoring a sport with a perceived issue with drugs? Maybe they are drawn to the aspect of cycling that is cleaning up doping and they want to be associated with a “clean” sport? The choice is a bit tenuous, but Amgen sponsors the Tour of California, so no problem there.
In general, I applaud the new sponsor ready to take over a team. It shows that cycling has a far reach and is a relative deal in terms of cost compared to other sports. Now prepare with lots of puns based on beef, cows, “What’s for dinner” etc. Perhaps the team will excite the peloton as the sizzle sells the steak.
Seems that the two un-sponsored American teams now have major sponsors. This is great news after last years folding of Discovery Channel due to the lack of new sponsors. Team CSC also found a new sponsor with Saxo Bank and Quick-Step has their sponsorship extended for three more years. Most of the top teams seem to be reporting good news on the sponsor front despite the constant drubbing of doping scandals for the past few years.
Columbia Sportswear will take over the main sponsorship of Team High Road. The sponsor seems like a perfect fit for cycling and slides into the lead sponsor role of one of the most successful teams of the year so far.
Garmin has been a smaller sponsor for several teams such as Milram. Now they step into the main sponsor role taking over the Slipstream team. Garmin is perfect for cycling especially with the 705 model which includes a map. Previously the Slipstream team was using Powertap computers to monitor their training. With Garmin coming in will they drop the Powetaps in favor of the Garmin 705/ SRM combo or will they have a very crowded set of handlebars with both Powertaps and Garmin GPS devices on the handlebars?
Here is my somewhat crowded cockpit with an iBike and Garmin 305.
AFP/File/Joe Klamar
2007 Tour de France champ Alberto Contador met with the press accompanied by Discovery Channel Team Director Johan Bruyneel and his family and Spanish sports minister Jaime Lissavetzky. Contador basically announced they he never doped and he is not involved in Operation Puerto (OP). He will not stop racing and will in fact give DNA samples and help with the investigation. The growing controversy surrounding the Tour champ resulted in Contador not being invited to several races especially in Germany where investigator Werner Franke is said to have evidence linking Contador to OP.
The announcement by Contador must surely be a way to help clear the air of suspicion surrounding Contador especially as he is now looking for a new team to race for in 2008. Tailwind Sports the company behind the Discovery Channel team has announced that they are stopping the team at the end of the 2007 season. Tailwind sports was unable to find a suitable sponsor since the announcement earlier this year that Discovery Channel would cease sponsorship. The never ending flow of doping news most likely scared away potential sponsors, especially with the admission by Ivan Basso of being “Birillo” of Operation Puerto fame. The involvement with Basso and other doping controversies which only intensified during the Tour de France may make any potential sponsor shy away.
Now, the remaining team and associated staff will be looking for a job for 2008. George Hincapie is said to have already signed for T-Mobile which will stay in the sport until 2010. Levi Leipheimer, Yaroslav Popovych and Alberto Contador to name a few will be looking for work.
The end of Tailwind sports marks the end of a formidable team that started way back in the 90s as Subaru Montgomery. The team eventually landed a large sponsor in the United States Postal Service who was keen to advertise overseas. In 1998 they signed recovering cancer victim Lance Armstrong. In 1999 Johan Bruyneel came on board. The rest is history. Discovery Channel finally seemed to get past the Armstrong Era with Contador. The team performed better overall placing three racers in the top ten overall at the Tour.
Just like US Postal “took over” after the demise of Motorola in the early 90s a similar pattern is emerging at Team Slipstream is gaining momentum to be the next top American team. Slipstream may not take the ProTour opening left by Discovery Channel for 2008 as their main goal is entry to the Tour de France only and not the various Pro Tour events.
Another interesting note is a developing trend. The 2007 and 2006 Tour winning team have ceased sponsorship at the end of each season. Last year’s Phonak squad ended after Floyd Landis’ Testosterone case caused replacement sponsor iShares to cancel its sponsorship of the team. Now Discovery Channel is ending its sponsorship after having a Tour winner in its ranks. Sponsors are shying away from the sport and the doping headlines causing racers and support staff to actually lose their jobs. With lots of racers around and not as many teams, they pay for racers goes down due to supply vs. demand. Therefore each racer gets less money than they would have otherwise. So, the incentive to dope should now disappear.
AP Photo/Daniel Maurer
T-Mobile decided to stay in the sport of cycling and keep sponsoring its top German team. The decision was made after several high profile admissions to past doping by 1996 Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis, Ralf Aldag and house sprinter Erik Zabel. After these revelations came the bombshell of Patrik Sinkewitz’s non-negative for elevated Testosterone levels. Sinkewitz admitted to using to making a boneheaded move of self administering a testosterone gel without realizing it would trip cause some doping issues.
“We want to prove a point through consistency and reliability which this sport is in great need of,” said Hamid Akhavan, chairman of T-Mobile International and board member of Deutsche Telekom AG. “We want to continue to accompany cycling and support it in its effort to become a cleaner sport.”
“After intensive internal talks, but also after contacting important representatives from politics, media and sport, we decided to face the challenges and not to give in to the current problems. We know that the chosen route would be difficult,” Akhavan said in a company statement.
The T-Mobile management has the right to end sponsorship if more doping cases popup. After the Sinkewitz fiasco it was thought that T-Mobile just might pull out of cycling altogether. This would have been troubling especially since the team have committed to an extensive internal anti doping testing system.
Hopefully all future T-Mobile racers will be extra careful with the gels, lotions and rubs they administer so as to not trip up a positive/non-negative doping result. If any T-Mobile racer dopes after this close call then they should probably take an IQ test because it would surely be a boneheaded move.
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Gianni Savio has been signing more Italians lately and that may be due to a change in sponsorships. Sprinter Angelo Furlan formerly of Liquigas, Italian Santo Anza and Columbian Fredy “so fast he only needs one d” Gonzalez were signed to the squad to join such veterans as Vlad “Casius” Belli. They round out the squad to 20 riders which will be 19 after the Giro when Jose Rujano joins Quick-Step.
Gone is the main sponsorship of Columbia as Selle Italia takes primary sponsor position. New sponsor Serramenti Diquigiovanni a leader in PVC pipes and such.
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