Disco/Tailwind Explanation

Very interesting conference call about why Disco stopped seeking a sponsor:

http://www.velonews.com/race/int/articles/13074.0.html

I have a much better understanding, but I am still wondering what we don't know. . .


:(

Huh.

That all just means to me that Lance Armstrong and his partners are savvy businessmen. What they're basically saying is pro cycling is not a good investment. And it's all about the money.

Karen

ARMSTRONG:
"It's a sad for American cycling," Armstrong said. "The guys at ASO are talking about taking the Tour back to national teams like they did in the olden days. If something like that would happen, someone's $15 million investment is worth zero. Issues like that are too unknown. It's too risky to ask that kind of money. There are too many questions within the sport."


So is Armstrong intimating that the teams might become just French teams, not international? Surely that is not a possibility?

I think more along the line of The French Team, The Italian Team, The US Team, The New Zealand Team...

in the early days of the tour they would alternate between national teams and corporate teams. i think it caused a lot of dissension, because they would be riding with a guy throughout the season (on their corporate team)then riding against him (on the national team) in the tour. in today's world it would mean say jens voigt, carlos sastre, cancellara would be on csc for most of the season, then for the tour de france sastre would be on the spanish team with other spaniards like contador, valverde and oscar pereiro; while voigt would be on the german team with zabel, gerdemann, robert forster; and cancellara would be on the swiss team with, well, nobody.

so say voigt is on a breakaway, will cancellara try to reel him back in knowing they're going to be teammates again in a couple weeks?

or what would happen is the teammates on the corporate team would be divided by nationality and so would not help as much when it came to chasing down a countryman from another team.

i'm guessing that's what lance is referring to.

$15 million is *not* a lot of money I would have thought.

[Says she who personally hovers between -$500 and +$500 from month to month but reads the "economy" section of the paper]

It's a lot of money to spend on advertising.

Last I read, the Tour was thinking of allowing a mix of pro and national teams on the Tour. Not sure how they would do that. But the other tours might follow suit if they do that.

Thanks Fredwina - I really couldn't make sense of it.

OK... so this should be interesting to watch how this all pans out... as long as we still get le Tour... its a big part of what I look forward to in my cycling calendar.

Road ~its-all-about-me~ Raven :p