Rabobank quits cycling!

[gerundium]

http://www.radio1.nl/items/63945-rabobank-stopt-met-de-sponsoring-wielerploeg?autoplay=275366

if you understand dutch this is the radio interview with bruggink.

edit: interview confirms that they will continue with their continental team.

 

[Der Effe]

On the radio they just called Lard Boom and he says he got the news 30 minutes ago. Not sure if that's true though.

He was very calm and relax about it, but that's typical Boom. He was very sad to hear Rabobank leaves as it's been a very loyal sponsor to cycling.
He says they will try to keep the team together and find a new sponsor.

If Rabobank pays for next season they got over a year to get it done and I'm pretty hopeful they will succeed at it.

We should do the same as this guy on this website did. All buy 1cm² of their kit for like 20 quid With about 30 riders and thus 30 quids we could succeed

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Time to come to daddy Renshaw.

 

[Kwibus]

"Typical Dutch correctness" is not paying 15 million euros and getting nothing in return

Heh, no that's not a typical dutch trade mindset, but it is typical dutch correctness.

They know that if they fire 50 people now of which 99% has nothing to do with why the team is stopping is not right. So they keep on paying them for another year allowing them to find a new sponsor or a new team.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

PFfffffffffffffffffff

Thank you Levi, thank you Telegraaf. And others who kept digging at stuff what happened 5/6+ years ago to scare away the best sponsor Dutch cycling could have.

Well done, you can pound yourself on the chest now Raymond Kerckhoffs, and in a few years explain why Dutch cycling has vanished.

 

[Arnout]

Happens a lot with sponsoring. Remember, for the avid Formula 1 fans, Brawn GP. Honda pulled out of the sport after years of massive failure (although officially they pulled out because of a change of vision). No Honda in Formula 1 anymore, but they kept on paying their bills in 2009. Funny thing was that the team immediately started dominating in 2009, and returned to former mediocre form when they got a new sponsor.

 

[Arnout]

PFfffffffffffffffffff

Thank you Levi, thank you Telegraaf. And others who kept digging at stuff what happened 5/6+ years ago to scare away the best sponsor Dutch cycling could have.

Well done, you can pound yourself on the chest now Raymond Kerckhoffs, and in a few years explain why Dutch cycling has vanished.

Lol. Yeah, let's just ignore the past. Probably it wasn't even the past that caused this, but the current investigation into the blood profile of Barredo.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Raymond Kerckhoffs says that the team will continue in 2013 under a "white label". What the hell is that? A team without a sponsor, how can they exist?

Rabobank is a nice bank, they will probably pay the last year.

 

[Mellow Velo]

Time to come to daddy Renshaw.

https://twitter.com/Mark_Renshaw/status/259193048083349504

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Lol. Yeah, let's just ignore the past. Probably it wasn't even the past that caused this, but the current investigation into the blood profile of Barredo.

Which happens to be about his time before Rabo by the way

 

[Der Effe]

Rabobank is a nice bank, they will probably pay the last year.

Yeah, such a nice bank that they invest in the gun industry. Don't fool yourselves, they're the biggest hypocrites in the game.

 

[Arnout]

Rabobank is not a nice bank though. They changed the conditions of my Credit Card unilaterally.

As a result I am going to move to another bank. I was going to give doping in cycling as the reason for the move, just to troll, but now I have to find another reason.

 

[Mellow Velo]

Lol. Yeah, let's just ignore the past. Probably it wasn't even the past that caused this, but the current investigation into the blood profile of Barredo.

I seriously doubt it. Passport readings from before 3 tours ago.
Has to be the USADA dirt, further potential fallout and the Lance powered, press spotlight.

 

[Frosty]

Wonder how much the Rabobank team are exposed to the Ferrari investigation? They are named in that although it is not clear (to me) how many people are involved or whether the team would have known.

 

[Frosty]

Which happens to be about his time before Rabo by the way

Without going too much into clinic issues... I know he was a 10 in the 2010 list but is there any info on exactly when the dodgy blood readings come from?

Makes you wonder why they signed him as the teams look at the biological passport info dont they and they should have realised that he was likely to have problems at some point?

 

[Mellow Velo]

"Dear Rabobank, you were part of the problem. How dare you walk away from your young clean guys who are part of the solution. Sickening."

Saint David.
(he's not wrong, though)

 

[Arnout]

I seriously doubt it. Passport readings from before 3 tours ago.
Has to be the USADA dirt, further potential fallout and the Lance powered, press spotlight.

You might be right. Still, you can't blame the media for trying to uncover the history of cycling. It's Rabobank's decision to pull out of the sport not because of the past but because the past is publicized. If that's their reasoning, then they better leave the sport because they won't bring anything that can add value in a better sport.

 

[Cykelbloggar]

Thank you very f***ing much Lance Armstrong for all you have done to destroy Cycling, you lying, cheating, bulllying son of a b****

/Fritz

 

[the asian]

This is a sad day for Cycling as it will lose of one of it's long standing and truly committed partners. It was one of the few who sponsored a women's team as well.

Rabobank were sponsors of the team for 17 years and stood by it despite the Festina scandal, the Armstrong years, the Phonak, T Mobile revelations the Rasmussen affair.

If a long standing sponsor gets fed up, I do fear for the teams sponsored by relatively new ones. Teams will have hard time persuading new sponsors for at least a couple of years, especially if the investigation to Ferrari concludes and almost all teams in the Pro peloton are implicated.

 

[Rui Quinta]

I'm shocked! I'm portuguese, but Rabobank is my favorite team for the way they work with the young guys. I hope they get a new dutch sponsor and keep the team on the same basis.

 

[jens_attacks]

thanks usada, let's see how you will chase down all the other sports.

 

[Kwibus]

Saint David.
(he's not wrong, though)

David Millar?

 

[Der Effe]

thanks usada, let's see how you will chase down all the other sports.

Oh, now it's USADA's fault? Fool.

 

[Kwibus]

thanks usada, let's see how you will chase down all the other sports.

Jens I love you, but you can't blame them.

Blame the UCI, team management and riders. They all got a choice. I know it's barely impossible to stay clean, but it's their own choice in the end. If they stay clean all of this wouldn't happen. There wouldn't even be an USADA.
Ofcourse that's an Utopia, but you can't blame USADA or journalists for what's going on.
Rabobank just got too much negative attention from cycling and they couldn't keep it up. Specially because journalists kept on asking Rabobank what they would do everytime after another scandal. They folded to the pressure of the media.

 

[Pentacycle]

Rabobank just couldn't take the heat anymore.
Even a simple pre-Rabo case of Barredo is blown up in the Dutch press.
I wonder if they'll be able to get a sponsor/WT license for next year.

Isn't this thread better discussed further in the Clinic btw?