Rabobank pull the plug. Who's next?

NeilM

Retrobike Rider
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News today about Rabobank pulling their sponsorship money out of cycling has me thinking, who's next?

Is this the first step in road racing becoming a smaller / less commercial sport? Are we returning to the 1950's and 60's, as far as sponsorship is concerned?
 
I see Nike, Anheuser-Busch, Radio Shack, Trek, and Giro have all dropped Lance. Oakley is weighing it's options.

Now if Nike would dump Tiger (serial adulterer) and Vick (convicted animal killer) I might actually consider buying their products.

Might.
 
The thing with Lance is personal.

It is more worrying / interesting that the whole sport could now be coming into question. After all, the only reason any sponsor involves themselves with any sport is to gain positive publicity.
 
I was going to type some stuff, then I read this.

http://inrng.com/2012/10/rabobank-quit-pro-cycling/

Thats about the size of it, really. Except that we also saw the merge of Leopard / Radioshack, Divergence of Omega/Lotto, and lost Garmin Womens squad, who were largely saved by AA Drinks, who are now going to be closing at the end of the year due to companies dropping sposorship at the end of an Olympic term. We are also a number of notable senior riders short next year.

Not one overall problem, just a few compounding problems thats going to make the sport ache for a while.
 
Did you see David Millar`s tweet this morning

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
 
I think the tweet is a fair comment

Some will be using this to get out of contracts they no longer want to be in rather than a true reflection of their feelings.

The good thing is that this long term will benefit the sport as a purge is clearly needed but as Millar points out..it looks like they are abandoning the good riders more than the bad who have already retired/been banned/walked away
 
daj":32t439j1 said:
Did you see David Millar`s tweet this morning

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

I saw that, once again I find myself in agreement with Mr Millar
 
daj":3pxqv32i said:
Did you see David Millar`s tweet this morning

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

i haven't cared about anything from him since he was caught for doping himself. then he became all self righteous and talked like he'd never done anything. this comment above reflects that as far as i am concerned.
 
Lots of riders and still implicated with Dr Ferrari , and the investigation starting this week in Italy is supposed to be bigger than anything we have seen so far .

I expect a lot more teams are going to fold .

hopefully for the better in the long term .

But really annoyed cycling is the only sport suffering .
 
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