It doesn’t take much to help the environment!
So say Tour de France organisers for 2011. Before the race starts this year riders, team managers, the media and the publicity caravan will all be briefed on ways to help the environment, from rules on where riders can and cannot drop used food wrappers to advice for the media to car-pool and switch off the engine of their car if stationary for more than a minute. Indeed ASO says the reduction of C02 emissions is “our priority” too.
On some measures HTC-Highroad is the most successful professional team going. At the time of writing they have 29 wins this year, the next UCI ProTeam is Rabobank with 17 wins. It was the same story last year, with the team finishing a long way ahead of Liquigas at the end of the season. And that’s before you include the wins of the women’s team too. Victory wise, this is the equivalent of a solo breakaway, dropping every other team going and finishing far ahead of the pack.
Yet for a team so far ahead of its rivals, it’s struggling to find a sponsor. I covered this subject back in March but now want to revisit the idea to explore a couple of new angles.
American documentary maker Morgan Spurlock has a new film called “Sold Out”. You might know him from the “Supersize Me” film where he tried to stick to a diet of fast food and measured the ill-effects.
His new effort focuses on the omnipresence of advertising and branding in our lives, from billboards to product placement. As you can see from the image above, he’s sold space on his clothing to sponsors and in fact the full name for the film is “Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold”.
Yet if Spurlock is employing the classic reductio ad absurdum technique to point out with satire just how much advertising gets beamed at us… doesn’t he just remind you of a pro cyclist posing in front of the team car? What’s normal for us is parody for Spurlock.
Earlier today saw a small press release from Tour de France organisers ASO that French clothing company Le Coq Sportif is to provide the leaders jerseys in all ASO races from 2012 onwards, meaning the yellow jersey will no longer be provided by Nike.
I put the news of this deal out on Twitter as it’s interesting (to me at least) for several reasons:
I first saw it mentioned on twitter then found out the source from the Gazet Van Antwerpen, GVA.be. The idea is that team sponsors in the Omega Pharma – Lotto team are not seeing eye to eye on their partnership.
Lotto are the longest team sponsor in existence, being involved in one way or another with Belgian pro teams since the 1980s. Omega Pharma have been behind the team for some time, using different product names for the team like Bodysol, Predictor and Silence. But now it seems there are differences over the future of the team.
I’d been meaning to look at the sponsoring future for Team Radioshack. The US team was built around Lance Armstrong but now he is retired, the sponsor’s interest is bound to be waning. Especially since the US electrical retailer has very little presence outside the USA. So what’s next for the team? Well I’d hinted … Read more
Who’s up and who’s down? As ever, The Inner Ring keeps an eye on the money that comes into the sport. Whilst I love watching the pros battle over bergs and cols, as well as racing and training personally, in the quieter moments it’s interesting to follow the money. Of the 18 UCI ProTeams for … Read more
Since any more detail on the Aussie team under Shane Bannan is vague for now, I wanted to review the broader concept behind the Aussie squad, namely that we are seeing the emergence of several national teams. In an age when the sport is supposed to be moving towards attracting global brands, we are seeing … Read more
Proof that it doesn’t work? I wrote back in August that the Italians were investigating the phenomenon of Power Balance wristbands. Being sarcastic, this means the Italians might rule on the matter by 2015 but the wheels of justice turn slowly in many other countries. Nuevas energias, gracias a la magia de hologramas Nevertheless they … Read more
News from Spain where struggling race organisers and local municipalities are struggling to make ends meet. Patxi Mutiloa, the sports boss within the Basque Government has compared cycling to other professional sports “where nobody disputes that you have to pay entry. If we want to see the best cyclists on our roads in certain areas, … Read more