Also I think if a team is not competitive enough it's no use to keep it hanging on a string.
I wonder, though, why a company like Mercedes does not just pump money into a team like this early in the season and picks up some really good riders. The money should be peanuts for them. Probably because only a Tour win counts as something and they wouldn't have a chance... oh, this sponsoring model is working so badly...
Companies that have hopefully been asked: Budweiser/ Beck's; MTN; Nestlé/ Roche...
I mean, come on, what does a name sponsor have to pay in cycling, if they have two sponsors... 10 million for a very decent mid-size team... 5 for a small one?
Of course cycling has its issues, but maybe the men's WT is also just too big.