Trek Factory Racing brings Mapei Sport on board

Trek Factory Racing has today announced a partnership with Mapei Sport – but has quickly scotched any hopes (or for some cycling fans, perhaps, fears) that one of the sport's more memorable kits might make a return to the peloton.

For a decade from 1993, Italian adhesives and sealants business Mapei sponsored the team which has since evolved into Etixx-Quick Step and along the way won Paris-Roubaix five times, including a clean sweep of the podium in 1996.

That same year, company owner Giorgio Squinzi set up Mapei Sport scientifc and medical research facility, based near Varese, to support the team's cyclists under the guidance of the late Dr Aldo Sassi.

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The operation continued after Mapei withdrew from team sponsorship in 2002, with 2011 Tour de France champion Cadel Evans among those to reach their full potential with its help.

It's Mapei Sport that has today been confirmed as a new technical partner of Trek Factory Racing, working alongside the team's head of performance, Josu Larrazabal.

He said: "Having Mapei Sport partner with us was the missing piece to having a fully operational performance task force. We now have a solid structure to support the riders to reach their maximum performance.

“Mapei Sport needs no introduction. They have gained massive expertise in sports science, not just in cycling, for decades now.

“We are scientists, so we like numbers. However, what Mapei brings to the table is hard to measure, there’s no doubt about that. Together, we will be more competitive. That’s what we’re going for. Nothing is simply a detail if you’re ambitious."

Andrea Morelli, head of cycling and head coach at Mapei Sport, said: “It’s a great pleasure for me to work again with (general manager) Luca Guercilena and the Trek Factory Racing Team.

“In the first place, the team riders will have access to our facility to monitor their physiological parameters but we will give also our scientific support to help the team to improve the training plan and recovery strategy.

“We will provide performance testing opportunities throughout the season, and assist the team’s performance staff, notably Josu Larrazabal and Daniel Green [team sports scientist], to enhance the performance of each rider.”

Mapei CEO Squinzi added: “I’m very excited that Mapei Sport reappears in the world of professional cycling thanks to Luca Guercilena, who is arguably the best team m,anager you can wish for thanks to his background as a sports scientist.

“I’m also very glad to pick up my friendship with Fabian Cancellara. Fabian made his first steps in pro cycling in our team. He’s an exceptional athlete and it’s like a dream to work closely together again.”

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The announcement generated a lot of excitement on Twitter, with a number of people wondering whether the news might see Mapei's colourful branding make a return to the peloton.

The kit – one of the iterations of which is modelled in the picture below by Giro d'Italia stage winner Stefano Zanini, whom we bumped into in Milan in 2012 – even made an appearance in the Weekender feature of the Guardian Weekend magazine a few years back.

If it was a deliberate ploy by Trek Factory Racing to withhold that information from their press release, it worked and got the news maybe more attention than might otherwise have been the case.

But they subsequently clarified on Twitter: “Seems to be some confusion: @MapeiSport is joining as a technical sponsor. Our pinstripes are not going anywhere! :)”