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gooner

gooner

Mar 25, 2013
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That would be interesting except France bans advertisement of alcohol on TV. ;)

Remember Liverpool playing there in CL with no sponsor when they had Carlsberg on jerseys at the time.
 
Ryo Hazuki

Ryo Hazuki

Mar 31, 2010
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Libertine Seguros said:
The Portuguese and Spanish federations are sitting together trying to hammer out an Iberian racing calendar for 2014. At the moment RFEC's regulations make it difficult to set up Continental level teams in Spain, and as a result there are very few of these level teams in the country (Euskadi and Burgos-BH are the only ones, I believe, with several Spanish riders appearing on the former Greek-registered Gios squad and in Portugal with OFM-Quinta da Lixa and Louletano-Dunas Douradas). RFEC are looking to simplify these requirements and ease them to enable Spain to have more Continental teams, as at present due to the financial crisis and sponsor pull-outs they will only have one pro team (Movistar) and one pro Continental team (Caja Rural), both of whom are based out of the same area, next year. Teams based out of Murcia (Contentpolis in 2009), Galicia (Xacobeo in 2010), Andalucía (in 2012) and Cantabria (Geox in 2011) have gone to the wall in recent years and with few teams registered at the Continental level to take their place, the competition at the Spanish national calendar has suffered. Portuguese cycling has already seemingly survived the worst, with the number of national teams increasing last year to 6 and it looking like staying that way going forward. It's not as good as the golden era a decade or so ago, but the slide has definitely been arrested; however, the many races of a few years ago are not being replaced, so the only UCI races available are the Volta ao Algarve (2.1), Volta ao Alentejo (2.2), Trofeu Joaquim Agostinho (2.2) and A Volta (2.1), which limits the earning potential of cyclists in Portugal.

The plan is for a number of races at the .1 and .2 level to be set up, or national calendar events to become .2 categorised races, allowing both Continental and amateur teams to participate, and set up an Iberian racing calendar along the lines of the Coupe de France or Coppa Italia. It would be a low cost, high competition calendar to try to keep the roots of the sport competitive and build up talents in the region in decent level races, as they note that the UCI calendar is increasingly global, which increases costs and puts off smaller sponsors, and is increasingly geared towards looking after the bigger teams because that's where the most money is.
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how come portugese cycling is doing so much better than spain? the crisis is at least as bad there but this year more ct teams and especially big improvement in races and courses. will this upward spiral continue with succes of costa?
 
Libertine Seguros

Libertine Seguros

Feb 20, 2010
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One of the reasons is the regulations regarding application for Continental licenses in the two countries. It seems that in Spain the time of plenty leaving them with many teams at the World Tour and ProContinental level (just a few years ago over these two levels you had Caisse, Euskaltel, Saunier Duval, Karpin/Xacobeo, Andalucía, Relax-GAM, Fuerteventura-Canarias, Comunidad Valenciana/Kelme, Contentpolis, Catalunya-Ángel Mir, and ONCE/Liberty Seguros) and the long national calendar attracting good starting lineups from these teams, there wasn't all that much call for Continental squads except for development teams along the lines of Orbea. And with the amount of races available for the Continental teams to justify the costs in money and the time and effort required to get the licenses etc. to race these events (where they will inevitably get stomped by Movistar, increasingly the only big fish in the pond), most of the strongest amateur teams (here I look at teams like Valencia Terra i Mar, Spol-Novocaixagalicia, Supermercados Froïz and Azysa-Telco'm over the last few years) have preferred to remain amateur. In Portugal there was a restructuring of the Continental requirements in order to help safeguard the existing teams, but this has also made the setting up of newer teams a bit easier in terms of day one requirements. I do think that the attention paid to the sport following the successes of Rui Costa have meant there is a bit more attention paid to the sport, and his winning the Portuguese Sportsman of the Year trophy last year over people like Cristiano Ronaldo is big (and he has to be in with a shout of getting it again this year). Especially if Lampre come back to A Volta this year even if Rui's not racing or just racing for show in the same way as Wiggins does the Tour of Britain.
 
trevim

trevim

Oct 26, 2010
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canyonball said:
Portuguese rider Hernâni Broco is retiring. He will now start a new project: a Physiotherapy Clinic

Link to the news
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I was afraid of that. Recently on a bike festival in Portugal there were flyers with information about the physiotherapy clinic he's opening. He will still be connected to sport though. A personal favourite of mine since his Liberty days when I thought he was one of the best youngsters there.
 
fraserhughes

fraserhughes

Jun 6, 2013
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theyoungest said:
Rabobank? ;)

The fine for LIBOR manipulation is 300 million lower than expected, so they have some money to spare.
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:D

I'm surprised argos are pulling out, I'd have thought they'd got pretty good exposure this year and I don't see that changing in the next few years.
 
D

Der Effe

Sep 20, 2011
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fraserhughes said:
:D

I'm surprised argos are pulling out, I'd have thought they'd got pretty good exposure this year and I don't see that changing in the next few years.
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They say the new sponsor will bring more money. Maybe they bought Argos out?
 
T

theyoungest

Jan 11, 2010
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Der Effe said:
They say the new sponsor will bring more money. Maybe they bought Argos out?
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Well, they don't say explicitly that the new sponsor brings more $$$. But rather in vague terms of 'fitting with our ambitions and goals'.

Maybe Argos doesn't really mind to be shoved aside? That company has had an interesting year, with plans for a Russian takeover falling through.
 
fraserhughes

fraserhughes

Jun 6, 2013
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Der Effe said:
They say the new sponsor will bring more money. Maybe they bought Argos out?
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Looks that way from reading the quotes here: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/spekenbrink-to-announce-new-sponsor-as-argos-step-aside

“Very recently, a company expressed interest in taking over the main sponsorship. The new sponsor is a good fit with our ambitious team goals,” said Spekenbrink in a team release.
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The headline I think is misleading as it suggests Argos pulled out...
 
Libertine Seguros

Libertine Seguros

Feb 20, 2010
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theyoungest said:
Well, they don't say explicitly that the new sponsor brings more $$$. But rather in vague terms of 'fitting with our ambitions and goals'.
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That worries me, since Argos' main ambitions and goals of late have been sprints, sprints and more sprints. Hopefully Degenkolb turns into more of a Classics all-round guy, and Barguil continues to improve, and Kittel can be turned into a worthless afterthought or turn into a monster TT engine like he was as an U23.
 
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