Rabobank quits cycling!

[Ryo Hazuki]

I hate to break your good mood but the team will stay for one more year...

So you'll probably have to watch another Gesink TdF Fail

I think I can handle that

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

They still have one year to find a team. After all, the WT team will keep riding in 2013 but without Rabobank as name

good luck. that will never happen after what is going on now.

 

[veganrob]

It is to bad when a long time major sponsor gives up but the team just did not get the results. Then the doping scandals on top of that made it impossible. The team was not run good at all.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Yet Rabobank doesn't believe the leadership of cycling is any cleaner now. They might have known that for years already, but the average Tour only watching fan didn't. And as long as that average fan didn't know, Rabobank didn't have to care. Now everyone knows how rotten the sport is (not was, it still is), Rabobank had some damage control to do. They couldn't use the 'deep investigation' card anymore, because they did that with Rasmussen already. Doing it again wouldn't be very believable. So the only choice they had was pull the plug.

And although cycling might be cleaner now, it would help if those so called cleaner riders were a bit more outspoken about things. So they shouldn't be going around saying Armstrong is still their hero. Instead they should be saying what many people on this forum are saying. Playing the 'cycling is cleaner' card now, doesn't do any good when the first thing that comes to mind when you ask people about cycling is the word doping.

rabobank believes the top of cycling is clean now. on;y they have no trust in uci. still it's not the real reason of course. real reason is all teh bad press for the bank. cumulative by now they can't continue. they just gave a reason. why do you think they also quit womans cycling? because they are doping there too?? then why do they continue with vos? the real reason is the media pressure. rabobank was the laughingstock of me for many years and in recent days everyone in netherlands are laughing at them for their incompetence and blindness

 

[auscyclefan94]

best day in years!! incomepetent idiots have no room in current cycling. firts milram who were idiots are gone and now rabostank. man this more than makes up for the bad news of sevilla join epm

Unbelievably stupid comment.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

I think up to half pro teams could walk away like this and mcquaid would affirm they are independent decisions that bear no link to governance.

they won't. why would they? they are unaffected by rapports

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Unbelievably stupid comment.

I love you too

 

[Kwibus]

Unbelievably stupid comment.

You know who is saying it right? Don't waste your energy.

 

[Dutchsmurf]

best day in years!! incomepetent idiots have no room in current cycling. firts milram who were idiots are gone and now rabostank. man this more than makes up for the bad news of sevilla join epm

I don't get how any cycling fan can be happy because a sponsor quits. A team without sponsor is never good news, no matter how much you hate that sponsor.

 

[FignonLeGrand]

Good to see so many happy with the decline of what must be one of, if not the oldest teams in cycling.

Great to see everyone clapping themselves about Lance finally getting revealed for what he truly is.

Nobody worried at all about the future of our sport? I presume we come on here because we all like professional cycling?

Im conflicted, it is good to see it all coming out however what we will be left with? Starting to think the only possible answer is a total breakaway from the current teams/ structures and governance. Only need the races. So who can partner with ASO to start all over again but still keep the races we want?

 

[jens_attacks]

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

sorry,heat of the moment.

on second thoughts, yep this was planned before. no way did they quit because of usada and lance.
that or they talked a lot at the phone in the ferrari files

still fucc usada and the gutter press. there are some other sports too idiots.

 

[Kwibus]

I don't get how any cycling fan can be happy because a sponsor quits. A team without sponsor is never good news, no matter how much you hate that sponsor.

How long have you been reading this forum? You should know Ryo by now.
It's not the more rational person on here

 

[FignonLeGrand]

Sad news, and utterly ridiculous at the same time. The sport of cycling is most likely cleaner than in decades. Why withdraw just because that **** Lance, and his compatriots used doping 10-15 years ago.

Is it cleaner, surely the last few days show no one can really know. Gesink et al can moan and say they are clean and a new generation but a new generation which didnt fight in anyway to clean up the sport. They were all happy to maintain the Omerta say lance was great bla bla bla.

Vaughters is meant to be the example of the new clean open and credible team and yet he has used the media to stay one step ahead of the s**t rather than expose it. When did anyone really try and change the sport? They havnt they said they were a clean speck in a big pool of manure

 

[theyoungest]

Oh, so predictable... one idiot on this forum is happy because 100+ people are potentially without a job.

And he's not alone, Graham Watson shares this opinion:

"From the ashes of Rabo' comes chance for so many lazy, yet talented, cyclists to find true destiny - in a team where they have to perform..."

Can you believe it? From the guy who has been crawling up Armstrong's a.ss for fifteen years? Sickening.

 

[dirkvijf]

rabobank believes the top of cycling is clean now. on;y they have no trust in uci. still it's not the real reason of course. real reason is all teh bad press for the bank. cumulative by now they can't continue. they just gave a reason. why do you think they also quit womans cycling? because they are doping there too?? then why do they continue with vos? the real reason is the media pressure. rabobank was the laughingstock of me for many years and in recent days everyone in netherlands are laughing at them for their incompetence and blindness

The same way you are the laughingstock on this forum?

on: very sad news, lets just hope a new (dutch) sponsor will fill up the void.

 

[ebandit]

thanks!

thanks! to rabobank for sponsoring the team all these years

it's hard to remember a time prior to rabobank within the peloton

.............of course i hope a new sponsor steps in

 

[FignonLeGrand]

The same way you are the laughingstock on this forum?

on: very sad news, lets just hope a new (dutch) sponsor will fill up the void.

Well I say bring back Buckler! And if we cant (does it still exist?) Amstel Malt!

 

[sublimit]

I don't get how any cycling fan can be happy because a sponsor quits. A team without sponsor is never good news, no matter how much you hate that sponsor.

Maybe, but If Sky quit most people here would jump up and down and throw a party.

I would be laughing my head off if Radioshack quit also.

 

[coinneach]

Its Procycling: every so often, teams change sponsership or go under, nothing new here.
But lets hope those owners committed to cycling can get together & push for change in UCI.
Oh well, we can but dream!

 

[Danilot]

You don't read well do you?

Is not because of Armstrong. Is because of no faith left in UCI.

And why don't they have any faith left in UCI?

*Gives Dekker_Tifosi half an hour to think*

Yes, that's right, because of the Armstrong case!

*Clap, clap, clap*

So, all in all, a handy excuse to get out of this sport now that they don't need the cycling team to boost brand recognition.

 

[Fidolix]

This is entirely UCI´s fault, if sponsors don´t have faith in the govern body of the cycling sport, then how should they believe there will ever be progress in the future against doping.

And with the Verbruggen statesments all along and the passive fat Irishman doing absolutely nothing other than trying to defend mr. dopestrong, no f.... wonder they pull the plug, paying 15 million euros or what ever it is Rabo pays for this, just to be ridiculed by a bunch of corrupt and narcissistic azzholes, no thank you.

Way to go Rabobank, show the cycling world the sport have no future with these 2 fu cktards at the top.
I just wonder how long we have to wait before the pressure build up so high that they actually have to go, but this was a step in the right direction, if the sport loses old and faithful sponsors like Rabobank, they have to act.

 

[Mellow Velo]

Oh, so predictable... one idiot on this forum is happy because 100+ people are potentially without a job.

And he's not alone, Graham Watson shares this opinion:

"From the ashes of Rabo' comes chance for so many lazy, yet talented, cyclists to find true destiny - in a team where they have to perform..."

Can you believe it? From the guy who has been crawling up Armstrong's a.ss for fifteen years? Sickening.

Graham Watson has made a career out of printing negatives.
Now all we get are his negatives, in print.

I really, really hate to see long established teams disappear from the pro peloton. They become part of the fixtures, then suddenly, they are no longer to be seen.
When the green and white stripes of finally Kelme vanished, it felt odd for a long time. (regardless of Kelme's clinical record)
They same will be true of the orange and blue.

 

[MatParker117]

This is entirely UCI´s fault, if sponsors don´t have faith in the govern body of the cycling sport, then how should they believe there will ever be progress in the future against doping.

And with the Verbruggen statesments all along and the passive fat Irishman doing absolutely nothing other than trying to defend mr. dopestrong, no f.... wonder they pull the plug, paying 15 million euros or what ever it is Rabo pays for this, just to be ridiculed by a bunch of corrupt and narcissistic azzholes, no thank you.

Way to go Rabobank, show the cycling world the sport have no future with these 2 fu cktards at the top.
I just wonder how long we have to wait before the pressure build up so high that they actually have to go, but this was a step in the right direction, if the sport loses old and faithful sponsors like Rabobank, they have to act.

Considering the large check Sky are going to write ASO and the UCI for TV rights in a couple years I doubt it.

 

[Echoes]

Before Rabobank, sponsors for Raas's team quit after one or two years. No performance. Why? I'm not entitled to say why on this section. Van Hooydonck said why.

But along came Rabobank in 1996 and stayed for 17 years. So I guess if I see their reasons for leaving, they should be f*cking hypocrits.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

I don't get how any cycling fan can be happy because a sponsor quits. A team without sponsor is never good news, no matter how much you hate that sponsor.

of course it is. it means riders get new teams and it will improve their riding. how basically every rabo rider when they left started to ride better