Garmin-Sharp

Who’s your sugardaddy?

Doug Ellis Slipstream

Garmin-Cervélo was to become Garmin-Big Mat but the French building supplies firm pulled out, leaving the squad hunting for a new sponsor and with a hole in their budget. I wonder what happened to make the company back out, especially since there are reports of a “binding” letter. But that’s for another day.

Fortunately there is Doug Ellis (pictured left). The Chairman of Slipstream Sports and a very wealthy entrepreneur, he helped Jonathan Vaughters found the squad several years ago. But it means the team now joins the Sugardaddy club of squads dependent, partially or wholly, on wealthy backers.

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Rasmussen and the rules (is he free to ride?)

Rasmussen

My first thought is that Alex Rasmussen looks like a lazy idiot, he could throw away a career and a decent contract with a top team simply because he didn’t think about updating his Whereabouts. It’s annoying but it is the duty of a pro .

But as ever, there are rules and after taking a look at them, my thoughts are a bit more confused. You see, there’s a chance that Rasmussen is free to ride.

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Peiper joins Garmin

Allan PeiperAussie director sportif Allan Peiper will be joining Garmin for the 2012 season. It think this is a wise signing, the team was struggling for managers earlier this year after Matt White got booted out. Indeed the squad too Peter Van Petergem away from his new career as an insurance salesman to get behind the wheel for a few weeks. Whether it was caused or just correlated to Van Petergem’s help, Johan Van Summeren took Paris-Roubaix.

Peiper is from the old school, the tough school. He quit an abusive home for Belgium and the weirdness of the Planckaert household. His book, a Peiper’s Tale recounts a lot of this. When his racing career came to an end he opened a burger bar, operating out of a van and driving to kermesses to supply spectators with hot food. It seemed an abrupt change.

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News bulletin and weather report

I can’t pick a single topic for the blog today so here are a few smaller points which are worth a mention. Nice images French company Mavic has a clunky website but the content is super-imposed on some nice background images. If you’d like the image above, click on it to open a full size … Read more

Trent Lowe’s story in three bullet points

He’s after alleged unpaid wages and an apology from Slipstream Sports. He had health problems and felt unsupported by his team. At one point he was sent to Dr Del Moral but didn’t know anything about his reputation. He didn’t try to blackmail anyone. The claim was to get unpaid wages and bonuses and the … Read more

Transparent Intentions

I’m feeling sorry for Trent Lowe. A promising climber, his career didn’t work out. He ended his time with Slipstream Sports badly after he got fired for not using team kit whilst still technically under contract and then his Pegasus team never made it to the start line. They say things come in threes but … Read more

Tyler Farrar’s New Cervélo

Here’s Tyler Farrar’s 2011 ride, courtesy of Velonews. Now I don’t mean this in too serious a way, I’ve not turned into The Bike Snob, it’s more a small observation. But this looks like the ride of a weekend warrior with an active eBay account, not the steed of a top sprinter. First up the … Read more

Team Building

We might think of Paris-Roubaix or an mountain stage of the Giro as being one of the toughest moments of the year but actually right now is one of the trickiest times of the season. Why? Several teams are meeting up and it’s the first get-together for the riders that will form a team in … Read more

Thoughts on Vaughters Interview – Part I

I’m going to take a quick look at Anthony Tan’s interview with Jonathan Vaughters. “JV” is now running Garmin-Cervélo, a squad that has gone from a small curiosity into one of the biggest outfits in the sport. Postcard from the past The team is known for its firm anti-doping stance, one of the few squads … Read more

Crumbs from the table?

French wine… or Belgian beer for Jonathan Vaughters? Ask most people in the sport and they can only see Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck dominate the Tour de France for the next few years. Maybe others will share the podium with them but as things stand, the yellow jersey looks locked down. Now such assumptions … Read more

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