Hi,
In the past, I have seen few bike prices increase dramatically from one year to the next (especially the price of the frame I bought in 2005 which increase by almost 250%) just because the bike manufacturer starts to sponsor one top team. We see more and more bicycle being far over the 10.000 €.
In the same time, we are seing one team supposed to have a 10M€ budget and have two riders over the 3M€ per year. I'm just wondering how they are doing to keep their budget and if most of the money we spend it's just use for sponsoring and advetissement. We should have a view has a consumer on the ratio they use for sponsoring/advertissement vs production cost. I like cycling very much but I will never trust one of the top rider and I don't want to give their my money as it's occuring now. In the past, bike manufacturer were not title sponsor and were just providing the bikes. What we see with Specialized, BMC or Treck where they play a key role on the decision and pass directly contract with rider disturb me a bit.
In the past, I have seen few bike prices increase dramatically from one year to the next (especially the price of the frame I bought in 2005 which increase by almost 250%) just because the bike manufacturer starts to sponsor one top team. We see more and more bicycle being far over the 10.000 €.
In the same time, we are seing one team supposed to have a 10M€ budget and have two riders over the 3M€ per year. I'm just wondering how they are doing to keep their budget and if most of the money we spend it's just use for sponsoring and advetissement. We should have a view has a consumer on the ratio they use for sponsoring/advertissement vs production cost. I like cycling very much but I will never trust one of the top rider and I don't want to give their my money as it's occuring now. In the past, bike manufacturer were not title sponsor and were just providing the bikes. What we see with Specialized, BMC or Treck where they play a key role on the decision and pass directly contract with rider disturb me a bit.