Carlos Satsre and Denis Menchov may be forced to look for new teams for 2011, with press reports in Italy suggesting that the Geox-TMC team the pair have joined for next season is at risk of losing its headline sponsor after failing to secure ProTeam status.
With the team, which is the successor to Footon-Servetto, instead given Professional Continental – or “second division” – status by world cycling’s governing body, the UCI, the outfit faces uncertainty over whether it will receive invitations to compete in the sport’s biggest races such as the Tour de France – won by Sastre in 2008 – and the Giro’d’Italia and Vuelta, both of which have been won by Menchov.
Treviso-based footwear company Geox, which had previously featured among Lampre’s roll of sponsors, its name appearing on the team’s jerseys, took the decision this summer to step up its involvement in the sport and become headline sponsor of a team, reaching agreement with Footon-Servetto’s team manager, the Italian, Mauro Gianetti.
This week, the Geox-TMC squad has been holding its first team meeting in Spain. But Italian sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport reports that since the agreement with Gianetti was based on the team securing ProTeam status, failure to do so means that the footwear company is reconsidering its position.
Should the company decide to walk away from the team, the consequent reduction in budget would obviously have severe implications for the team’s plans for 2011. Although the Gazzetta says that Sastre, at 36 years of age, might be prepared to adapt to the changed circumstances, it highlights that Menchov may have other ideas.
The former Rabobank rider, who was at the presentation of the 2011 Tour de France in Paris in October, has big ambitions for next summer’s edition of the race, particularly given the expected absence of Alberto Contador, and may therefore be tempted to make a last-minute change of team should Geox withdraw its backing.
As i've said before, the police should be sued for a lot of money when someone they have knowingly ignored has gone on to commit a serious crime....
'Bad parking' blocks firefighters multiple times on same emergency call-out...
Cambridgeshire boy, 13, crashes Audi into garden wall after taking it from home...
Good stuff. Now do it on cycleway C9 through Hammersmith to Chiswick.
It's technically allowed but it's not known as "London's Orbital Car Park" for nothing.
You're defending bombing hospitals and refugee camps and starving children.
Used car salesman is a complete attention-seeking plank....
I don't know if they're any better, but they's certainly become more boring.
At risk of being cynical, and stereotyping the police, it's so they don't have to leave the comfort of their panda cars and pursue on foot when...
But now you don't have to. Allegedly.