Laurent Fignon’s autobiography recounts how he set up the Système U team with Cyrille Guimard. They created a private cycling team and sold space on the jerseys and naming rights to Système U, a French retail co-op. Income from the sponsor in excess of the wage bill and expenses meant the pair made a small … Read more
Jonathan Vaughters has written a must-read article over at cyclingnews.com. He takes a look at the worries concerning Geox, where their exclusion from the new UCI World Tour has led to boardroom discussions on whether to continue with sponsorship. It’s a similar point to the one made by Gerard Vroomen just a few days ago, … Read more
London’s The Independent has an interesting idea today, namely that corporate sponsors are taking out insurance policies to protect themselves against sponsorship deal going sour. Big brands associate with sports champions for obvious reasons but all too often the brands link up with an idealised vision of of the champion, an almost mythical status. Whereas … Read more
Hispanic insurance and financial planning outfit Liberty Seguros announced recently that it was to withdraw from cycling sponsorship. The company is a subsidiary of Boston-based Liberty Mutual. We can almost salute this company’s persistence. It was the sponsor of Manolo Saiz’s team when the Puerto scandal erupted and promptly several riders were suspended from the … Read more
Franz Kafka wrote some amusing but tortuous novels. His short story Die Verwandlung (The Metamorphosis) recounts the tale of a salesman who awakes one day to find he’s become a large insect. Der Process (The Trial) is about a man who finds himself on trial for a crime that is never mentioned, the court prosecutes … Read more
Winning is very difficult in cycling. With 200 riders on the start line your chances are low. So it’s no surprise to see many take satisfaction in the lesser places, finishing in the top-10 in the Tour de France is a great result. Indeed it’s not uncommon to see a rider aim for the top-10. … Read more
You might have seen the website for the new Luxembourg cycling team but it’s one page and tells you nothing. A beautiful picture of the San Gottardo pass but little else, except a caption saying “Leopard, true racing”. I got wind of the Leopard idea weeks ago but could only drop a hint about this. … Read more
The Irish playwright Samuel Beckett is famous Waiting for Godot, a play where two characters spend an age waiting for the unknown Godot to turn up. I can’t help feel the same is happening for the Bbox lot, the wait goes on for something that might never happen. Beckett originally wrote the play in French … Read more
Fedrigo: mobile and often hands free I’ve written a couple of time that for a team sponsored by a telecoms company, Bbox-Bouygues Télécom really doesn’t showcase its products. Not one rider uses Twitter, the perfect medium to highlight the mobile network and demonstrate new phones. Weak signalWorse, it seems people on the team are struggling … Read more
Where are they going? It seems the announcement that will save the band of brothers over at Bbox-Bouygues Télécom is taking its time to get through. In today’s Equipe the team’s top rider Thomas Voeckler says he’s had his best ever season – he won in Montreal – but that he’s still waiting for news … Read more