Rabobank pulls out of pro-cycling

[Arnout]

Press conf now.

After a question "Why now"

the answer from Rabobank is literally that because of the report of the USADA, they have no faith left in the UCI to control the anti-doping part of the sport.

So basically they quit because UCI failed

............

 

[zalacain]

Or maybe it has more to do with the stuff in La Gazzetta about financial wheeling and dealing?

 

[hrotha]

@ john vanden field Nou Nederlandse media....doel bereikt??
Well Dutch media .... goal??
Retweeted by Wilco Kelderman

That's more like "mission accomplished", right? Directly blaming the Dutch media.

Kill the messenger.

 

[Arnout]

That's more like "mission accomplished", right? Directly blaming the Dutch media.

Kill the messenger.

Correct.

jkjklo

 

["Jeff"]

I dont mind.

Rabobank IMO has been one of the worst Dutch cycling teams ever. That whole team was led by ideal son in laws for years. Heck, even their riders had no carisma. Dont get me started on Boogerd, Gesink or 'current' manager Harald Knebel.

 

[Pantani_lives]

I'm sorry that the riders of today have to pay for what happened years ago.

 

[hrotha]

I'm sorry that the riders of today have to pay for what happened years ago.

That bit about "what happened years ago" is being repeated so much and so uncritically. It wasn't long ago. USADA's case goes up to 2010, and there's also the Ferrari investigation going up to 2011. The top brass of the UCI hasn't changed - if anything, the better elements have disappeared. All that "we turned the page years ago, we're all innocent now" mantra is whitewashing of the worst kind.

 

[pelodee]

This may well be f**king brilliant for the sport of cycling!

In simplistic terms the scenario was supposed to be the media exposing what has been really going on --> us getting mad --> sponsors pulling out --> pressurising the UCI to change and address the problems.

But this is down to USADA.

By releasing loads of their evidence to the public (at the same time as the media and the UCI) none of the evidence could be brushed under the carpet. The media has had to deal with this and has done so in the bucket loads.

This has affected numerous national federations and has now played its part in a prestigious sponsor, that has been in the sport for #17 years, leaving.

F**k the UCI, The Times They Are a-Changin' (I hope )

 

[Dutchsmurf]

Judging from the reports it seems Rabobank is directly blaming the UCI for most of this. They called the sport rotten at the top and said they don't believe the current leadership is capable of cleaning up.

Anyway, it is always sad news to see a sponsor leave, no matter which sponsor it is. In the current climate, both economical and the bad press around cycling, it must be a pain to find a new sponsor. Maybe one of the major Dutch companies in the medicine market is interested?

 

[Arnout]

"One of the worst things that could happen"

Robert Gesink has said he is shocked after it was announced Rabobank were pulling out of sponsoring the men’s and women’s professional teams at the end of the season. The news comes in light of the damning USADA report into doping practices at the US Postal and Discovery teams in the late 1990s and 2000s.

Gesink, the team’s general classification rider, was informed of Rabobank’s intent hours before the news officially broke but told Cyclingnews that he was a state of shock.

“It feels like a smack in the face at this moment,” he told Cyclingnews.

“Of course there were a lot of bad things going on in cycling, everyone saw and it’s never a good thing to have a sponsors name on something like that and I didn’t think it would happen. Not at this moment when the team is full of young guys doing things the right way. Now the generation gets **** from a different generation from before who did wrong things. Now we’re losing one of the biggest sponsors in cycling ever. I don’t have any words for it but it’s one of the worst things that could happen.”

Rabobank has been a top-level sponsor since 1996 and are the sport’s longest serving title sponsor. They’ve have ridden through a number of storms before, notably Michael Rasmussen’s expulsion from the Tour in 2006, the Humanplasma case and the recent revelations that Levi Leipheimer admitted to doping while on the team.

However in recent years the team appeared to take a firmer line, cutting ties with riders associated to a murky past and positioning a themselves with a cleaner image. However on Thursday news broke that Carlos Barredo was under investigation by the UCI for a biological passport violation.

Gesink said he would now wait with the structure and management of the team expected to announce that they will attempt to continue next season but without a title sponsor.

“I’ll wait for a bit and then speak to people from the team and see what the next few days will bring but at the moment I’m still a bit shocked,” he told Cyclingnews.

“We’ve got a great team, a great structure and everything is working well with young talented guys. Stuff is coming out from ten years ago and we don’t even know half the guys who were riding then. It’s not really fair I guess.”

Asked who he blames or feels is responsible, Gesink said:

“I don’t think you can blame one person. This is something that happened a few years ago and it was a bad period for cycling. It’s all come out for the big world to see and I’m only disappointed now in the people that say they’re shocked about what went on and they’re calling themselves insiders. Everyone on the inside new that things in cycling had to change, and they did. Now we’re working with young guys, doing it the right way and trying to get results in a clean way and doing it the way you should do it. This is the worst thing that could have happened at this moment. You cant’ blame us for things that happened in America or different teams ten years ago.

“I hope so. For myself I had a tough season but I think I’m back at my top level and I think I can have a good season next year. Hopefully we’ll have the same structure and team though.”

Cyclingnews.

Gesink quite critical of cycling structure (and his employer?) in the latter part.

 

[Mr_Hansen]

Understandable and the right decision.

Given the pitty response by the peleton and cycling team officials concerning the Armstrong case one has to conclude that still a lot of dirty guys out there just waiting that the storm calms down.

"...We are no longer convinced that the international professional world of cycling can make this a clean and fair sport.."

Exactly!

 

[GazelleFormula]

Judging from the reports it seems Rabobank is directly blaming the UCI for most of this. They called the sport rotten at the top and said they don't believe the current leadership is capable of cleaning up.

Anyway, it is always sad news to see a sponsor leave, no matter which sponsor it is. In the current climate, both economical and the bad press around cycling, it must be a pain to find a new sponsor. Maybe one of the major Dutch companies in the medicine market is interested?

"De wielersport is behoorlijk verziekt, tot in de hoogste instituties"

Translation: Cycling is properly racked, up to the highest institutions.
http://nos.nl/artikel/431041-stoppen-sponsoring-bittere-realiteit.html

Indeed, that's directly blaming the UCI.

 

[thehog]

Judging from the reports it seems Rabobank is directly blaming the UCI for most of this. They called the sport rotten at the top and said they don't believe the current leadership is capable of cleaning up.

Anyway, it is always sad news to see a sponsor leave, no matter which sponsor it is. In the current climate, both economical and the bad press around cycling, it must be a pain to find a new sponsor. Maybe one of the major Dutch companies in the medicine market is interested?

Correct. And Barredo's passport looked good to hire him. The UCI have dragged that entire prices out also leaving Rabobank without a rider that they've been paying for months.

Rabobank are a mainstay of cycling. It's extremely significant event that they're leaving. Very sad.



They know full well what the UCI is up to. Sky take note.

 

[I Watch Cycling In July]

"We are no longer convinced that the international professional world of cycling can make this a clean and fair sport. We are not confident that this will change for the better in the foreseeable future.

Do the idiots trying the same tired lines as before get it yet? It's not going to work this time. Rabo have been quite clear, this is not about the truth coming out about what happened in cycling. This is a lack of confidence in cycling's future.

 

[roundabout]

The question I have is how much do sponsors know.

 

[neineinei]

The poor womens team!

I don't think I trust them when they say it's because of the USADA case mainly. Maybe it has more to do with the Rasmussen case coming up, and Padova and Puerto too. Menchov moving money around with the help of Ferrari in his dopemobile doesn't reflect so good on Rabobank.

 

[TheEnoculator]

Just woke up to this. I'm shocked, utterly shocked. Rabo survived Festina, Operación Puerto and Rasmussen, so why now? The Armstrong case shouldn't be a surprise to anybody and Rabo had their share of allowing doping to happen on their team before 2007. They helped initiate the biological passport, and they seemed dedicated to continue fighting doping by getting rid of Breukink. So why now? Because of a little shrimp like Barredo?

They were the oldest continuing sponsor from those dark years of the sport. Cycling needs sponsors like that to keep fighting doping, and it's already an uphill battle with all the corruption in the UCI. For Rabo to quit now is a blow to the anti-doping fight, in my opinion.

This is disappointing beyond words.

 

[I Watch Cycling In July]

Just woke up to this. I'm shocked, utterly shocked. Rabo survived Festina, Operación Puerto and Rasmussen, so why now? The Armstrong case shouldn't be a surprise to anybody and Rabo had their share of allowing doping to happen on their team before 2007. They helped initiate the biological passport, and they seemed dedicated to continue fighting doping by getting rid of Breukink. So why now? Because of a little shrimp like Barredo?

They were the oldest continuing sponsor from those dark years of the sport. Cycling needs sponsors like that to keep fighting doping, and it's already an uphill battle with all the corruption in the UCI. For Rabo to quit now is a blow to the anti-doping fight, in my opinion.

This is disappointing beyond words.

I really think it is because the USADA report proves that the recent talk from UCI about doing everything they could was a lie. Now the information is out there for all to see. You don't need to be a cycling fan who spends too much time on the Internet to know that UCI words don't match UCI action.

 

[pelodee]

The poor womens team!

Rabobank ‘white jersey’ support will see pro teams continue next season (velonation, Friday, October 19, 2012)

However at a press conference held by the bank in Utrecht, riders and staff have been told that while the named backing is being pulled, that the existing financial agreement will be honoured and so the men and women’s pro teams will continue in 2013.

According to a release from the team, it will continue as a ‘white label’ outfit; in other words, with the backing of Rabobank, but without its logos on the jersey. It has been suggested that Marianne Vos and the women’s team could receive financial support until 2016, while it is understood that the existing men’s contracts will be honoured for next season. “We can maintain for 2013 and have to go further on our own as soon as possible,” a team spokesperson told VeloNation.

 

[TheEnoculator]

I really think it is because the USADA report proves that the recent talk from UCI about doing everything they could was a lie. Now the information is out there for all to see. You don't need to be a cycling fan who spends too much time on the Internet to know that UCI words don't match UCI action.

Then join that breakaway league that JV was proposing, establish new rules, take matters in your own hands. There's solution to everything. Everybody knows as long as Hein and Fat Pat are still there, cycling isn't going anywhere clean. I'm not intimately involved in pro cycling and even I know that.

It's a cowardly way to blame the USADA report as reason. Rabo being so intimately involved in pro cycling for 17 years shouldn't be surprised, at all.

 

[pelodee]

UCI statement on Rabobank decision (UCI, 19.10.2012)

The UCI acknowledges the decision of Rabobank to withdraw from cycling after 17 years of involvement with the sport as principal sponsor of one of the best known teams of the peloton.
In light of the difficult period, namely the high public interest in past doping issues and perhaps a more recent action taken by the UCI against a rider of the team, the UCI understands the context which has led to this decision being reached.

Despite inevitable and sometimes painful consequences, the UCI reaffirms its commitment to the fight against doping and full transparency about potential anti-doping rule violations.
The UCI wishes to express its gratitude to Rabobank for its important investment and support of women’s and men’s cycling, over almost two decades, as well as its decision to continue its support of the Cyclo-cross team, amateur cycling and youth training, which is important for the future of our sport.

UCI President Pat McQuaid said “Cycling is grateful for the many years of successful partnership with Rabobank, which have been beneficial for all. Its involvement has changed the lives of numerous athletes who in turn have undoubtedly contributed to make Rabobank one of the most recognized brands in sport worldwide.”


UCI Communications Service

No comment

 

[Tinman]

Just woke up to this. I'm shocked, utterly shocked. Rabo survived Festina, Operación Puerto and Rasmussen, so why now?

Only so much damage a brand can take. And there was/is much more to come in the months ahead.

Actually, if they decide to get back in as a sponsor, in say 9-12 months, after a decent purging (of UCI and doped riders), with a "clean" team, the brand may do really well.

I really think there is a huge opportunity for new sponsors to jump into pro-cycling in general, both mens & women's, and do really well after the purge has happened. But it takes a new courageous leadership before that can happen.

 

[Amsterhammer]

This is disappointing beyond words.

This....

 

[D-Queued]

UCI statement on Rabobank decision (UCI, 19.10.2012)

...a more recent action taken by the UCI against a rider of the team...

No comment

Then I will.

That is cowardice.

It pretends that they were doing their job while inferring that team management was not.

The latter may be true, but the former is a joke.

Who is responsible for widespread doping in the sport, if it isn't the sport?

Good on Rabobank for pointing out where the buck stops.

Dave.

 

[Dutchsmurf]

I really think there is a huge opportunity for new sponsors to jump into pro-cycling in general, both mens & women's, and do really well after the purge has happened. But it takes a new courageous leadership before that can happen.

If I were a sponsor looking for a sport I could throw my money at, I wouldn't look at cycling no matter how much the leadership changes the coming months. I would wait 2 years at least to see if it actually had any effect. Unless of course I'm a sponsor active in the medical industry, but if that really is a good idea...