Rabobank pulls out of pro-cycling

[Arnout]

I suspect that Rabobank was afraid of what might come out in the Ferrari investigation. The day after the team is linked to the investigation and--boom!--they are gone, even though they have a big financial obligation that still has to be paid out.

Decision was made on Wednesday though (confirmed by third party).

 

[Benotti69]

I suspect that Rabobank was afraid of what might come out in the Ferrari investigation. The day after the team is linked to the investigation and--boom!--they are gone, even though they have a big financial obligation that still has to be paid out.

I suspect Rabo are peessed off that UCI have badly managed the sport for the last 20 years and it has now come to a head where the product is past its sell by date.

So time to change the ingredients or Rabo will find a new sport for its money!

Bet plenty of others will follow.

Europcar? Cofidis? AG2R? Saxo?

 

[Arnout]

For Europcar it would make more sense to start a racing team.

 

[AntonioRossi]

If you want things to change, things have to get worse before they will get better.

LOL. Are you up to date in world news? Global economy is still sh*t. Small races have trouble organizing races as is, they do not need this. It's extremely difficult to find funds and sponsors for the smaller stage races. When major sponsors withdraw, it affects the whole cycling world negatively. Things do not need to get worse in order to improve.

But back to rabobank pulling out. It is completely understandable. It seems like they made up their mind before UCI speaks on Monday. I'm glad they they are paying the bills for next year considering they pulled their sponsorship so late. But it is a great loss for cycling no matter how you look at it. They have had several guys who doped on their team, but the contribution rabobank made to cycling was very imporant. Such a long standing sponsor deserves recognition. But if they had known what was really going on in the team itself they might have pulled out much much earlier.

 

[Arnout]

LOL. Are you up to date in world news? Global economy is still sh*t. Small races have trouble organizing races as is, they do not need this. It's extremely difficult to find funds and sponsors for the smaller stage races. When major sponsors withdraw, it affects the whole cycling world negatively. Things do not need to get worse in order to improve.

But back to rabobank pulling out. It is completely understandable. It seems like they made up their mind before UCI speaks on Monday. I'm glad they they are paying the bills for next year considering they pulled their sponsorship so late. But it is a great loss for cycling no matter how you look at it. They have had several guys who doped on their team, but the contribution rabobank made to cycling was very imporant. Such a long standing sponsor deserves recognition. But if they had known what was really going on in the team itself they might have pulled out much much earlier.

They will apparently honor all contracts, also those spanning beyond 2013. Money is not the problem, it's peanuts for them.

 

[iZnoGouD]

Did they pull out because of LA or did they already want to pull out?

 

[Arnout]

Did they pull out because of LA or did they already want to pull out?

Combination, likely. They mentioned this was the final nail in the coffin.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

I'm a big Giant fan (I race on two Giant bikes myself) and I follow every team they sponsor, but if they become the title sponsor, they won't last, like the Cervelo TestTeam.

This is because bike sponsors don't attract other commercial sponsors, and running a pro team costs tens of millions a year. That's why most pro teams have multiple sponsors to foot the bill. Besides, having a bike in a bike racing team is a given. If no other non-cycling related businesses get involved, the team loses its appeal, and eventually Giant will have to quit too.

giant is a huge and rich company. can't be compared to cervelo at all.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

I think the bank's senior management just got told they've got a stack of skeletons in various closets.

What ****es me off is that they're killing the women team, too. That's beyond me, they'd just signed Brand and Guarnier.

Time to restructure the sport.

who the **** cares about woman cycling anyway? it looks like a joke and it is. their averages are rather pathetic(considering distance and hardness of course), dope or not.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

I suspect that Rabobank was afraid of what might come out in the Ferrari investigation. The day after the team is linked to the investigation and--boom!--they are gone, even though they have a big financial obligation that still has to be paid out.

that had nothing to do with it

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Did they pull out because of LA or did they already want to pull out?

this was the excuse to use. lack of results and horrible press, because of bad results and all the dope. rabobank were laughed and ridiculed at in dutch press for many years.

 

[hiero2]

This was exactly the reaction of the chairman of the Dutch Cycling Union. They are expecting a thorough answer from the UCI and (he said) he won't accept a juridical-only answer.

Do you have a link?

 

[hiero2]

Did they pull out because of LA or did they already want to pull out?

In the quotes from the press release that I read, it seemed more like because they had lost faith that the sport could clean up it's act. This was just the final straw proving it.

 

[Arnout]

Do you have a link?

http://nos.nl/audio/431316-wintels-pleit-voor-alternatieve-bond.html

Audio only.

 

[racyrichuk]

If you want things to change, things have to get worse before they will get better.

You needed a proper quote. Here you go. Apologies to film buffs and John Cleese fans

Well that's where we are. You say we're on the brink of destruction and you're right. But it's only on the brink that people find the will to change. Only at the precipice do we evolve. This is our moment. Don't take it from us, we are close to an answer.

 

[Elagabalus]

The collateral damage phase is still in its infancy. The costs will far exceed the benefits at least in the real world outside "The Clinic". This is a runaway train now and will destroy anyone/anything in it's path. All the sleeping dogs have been woke up by the choir boys and only blood will satiate them.

Meanwhile ...
back in February you were predicting this:

http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showthread.php?p=781849#post781849

What a difference a few months make.

In any case, I look forward to living in your apocalyptic vision of the future. Maybe it's time to dust-off the ol' V8 Interceptor-one of last ones ever made. You know ... the one with the "blower". Driving around the desert looking for the precious juice... Good times ahead.

 

[Ninety5rpm]

it just became a lot cheaper to sponsor a pro cycling team.

 

[marinoni]

Some other big sponsors go and its going to put pressure on the top people.

A shame that Rabobank are going. My belief is that Rabobank are currently one of the cleaner teams in the peloton* and maybe the team/sponsors could have tried to play on this. Might not go down well with Omerta but if there are big upheavals in the sport as a result of current goings-on....

*Barredo's dodgy blood tests presumably occurred before he joined the team as he achieved top marks of 10 before the 2010 Tour. Makes signing him a bit odd though as they should have checked his biological passport and realised he was likely to come under disciplinary action at some point.

I agree. As much as I hate to see Rabobank drop cycling, this can still be a positive thing if Rabo(and likely others) leaving results in a major change in leadership and ethics at UCI. A sponsorship crisis will be strictly short-term. Modern doping has destroyed the epic, agonizing soul of this sport, but when people see what, I think, clean racing will be like believe me sponsors will not be a problem.

 

[sashimono]

I suspect Rabo are peessed off that UCI have badly managed the sport for the last 20 years and it has now come to a head where the product is past its sell by date.

So time to change the ingredients or Rabo will find a new sport for its money!

Bet plenty of others will follow.

Europcar? Cofidis? AG2R? Saxo?

The kind of companies that may have cycling teams in the near term...

http://www.johndaly.com/sponsors/

 

["Jeff"]

No matter if Giant really takes over everything. They have received a ton of free publicity already. Well done Giant !

 

[zigmeister]

17yrs is an incredibly long time to sponsor a cycling team. One of the longest in history.

At the same time, the economy sucks, it costs a crap load of money to run one of these teams...the board probably said, "Hey, great time and excuse to pull out and put some of those profits back in our pockets?!?!"

Right Ted, we outta here...."Bobby Brown"

 

[barn yard]

highly likely that subaru will end its sponsorship with greenedge and cycling australia before the end of the year thanks to the armstrong/USADA 'bad publicity' situation

 

[dadane]

At the same time, the economy sucks, it costs a crap load of money to run one of these teams...the board probably said, "Hey, great time and excuse to pull out and put some of those profits back in our pockets?!?!"

$16m a year is nothing other than cheap publicity. How much do you think it would cost to get the same international brand awareness using normal TV advertising? The only problem is that they felt the cheap publicity had turned into bad publicity.

Waiver: this doesn't apply to all sponsors.

Rabo is an international corporation these figures are peanuts. Personally, I hope things change enough that they would want to come back... but maybe I'm in cloud cuckoo land having a dram with Paddy.

 

[skimazk]

Rabobank was allready under a lot of pressure to quit after the 2007 fiasco with Rasmussen. With the Barredo case unfolding as well as the mentioning of LLS in the USPS case it was simply the last drop that tipped over the scales. And lets be honest with Humanplasma and Padova drawing nearer ( involving Menchov in both cases and a few other dutch riders being asked to give affidavit's in the humanplasma case) it is understandable that they didn't think things would get much better in the short / medium terms

 

[Frosty]

What's the current status of the humanplasma case? That seems to have been going for about 4 years?