The USA Pro Challenge had Lexus as official vehicles. The Tour de France has Skodas.
Business
The Finances of Team Sky
2013 was a great year for Team Sky on the road and in the accounts department. A second Tour de France win was obvious but behind the scenes they took on board a substantial new sponsor and signed an agreement to fund the team through to the end of 2016.
Widening the Transfer Window
Yesterday’s look at the 1 August date skimmed over the rarely used “mid-season transfer window”. But later in the day we saw the announcement of Rohan Dennis’s immediate move from Garmin-Sharp to BMC Racing.
It’s testimony to sport’s special status that when an employee is allowed to move from one job to another it’s considered headline news. But Dennis’s deal could be something we’ll see more and more.
UCI Annual Report and Financial Accounts
Money makes the wheels go round in pro cycling and the governing body has just quietly published its annual report on UCI.ch. Here’s a look at the financial report for the calendar year ending 2013 and the summary take is a steady year.
The Field of the Cloth of Gold
As the Tour de France convoy returns to French soil via the port of Calais it passes right by the village of Ardres, a nondescript place except it was once the site of an extravagant display of wealth and power between the Kings of France and England in 1520.
The Tour’s visit to Yorkshire and London has its similarities with pomp, sport, business and exchange.
Pro Cycling’s Sponsorship Crisis
For once a genuine international brand was buying into pro cycling as a means of marketing but once it got the chance to quit, Belkin exercised a break clause. The team is now scrambling for a replacement sponsor and to hold onto its core riders.
Is this a sponsorship crisis or should we confront the fact that pro cycling isn’t a vehicle for an international marketing campaign?
Giro Stage 17 Preview
208km through the Alps but without a mountain pass and hopefully with out a polemic post-race debate too. Today might not be for the sprinters as we’ve seen teams reluctant to work and the Ca’ del Poggio wall sits 20km from the finish.
Today’s stage passes through the Veneto region so a look at the Italian cycle industry because no other region in the world has such a concentration of famous cycling brands, from Sidi to Pinarello. Even Oakley is owned by a company founded here.
The Travelling Circus
There’s a growing trend for grand tours and even other stage races to start outside of the home country. Sacrilege or a good idea?
Germany: Europe’s Pro Cycling Black Hole
What have Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland and Switzerland all got in common? One thing is a border with Germany. Another is that they all have a national tour, a bike race that lasts several days and aims to cover the whole country.
In fact if it doesn’t have a national tour, Germany doesn’t have a big team either, the number of race days is dwindling and the sport is hardly shown at all on mainstream TV. A headwind for German cycling fans but also a real problem for professional cycling as a whole too.
Cycling and Beer
With the Amstel Gold Race this weekend, proof that cycling is linked to beer. It’s not just a one-off, recent races in Belgium have been sponsored by Kwaremont, a brand of beer that’s exploited the sport and it’s not that long ago that a major team was sponsored by a large brewery.