VeloNews | Garmin is the new title sponsor of the Slipstream-Chipotle team

For the third time in 10 days, a major international cycling team has announced a new title sponsor heading into next month’s Tour de France.

GPS maker Garmin International has signed on as the title sponsor of American professional continental team Slipstream-Chipotle through 2010, Garmin and the team announced Wednesday.

The title sponsorship, which sees the team name change to Garmin-Chipotle presented by H30, will commence immediately. A new team jersey, which will incorporate Garmin’s logo with the team’s trademark argyle motif, will be unveiled on July 3 in Brest prior to the start of the Tour.

With Monday’s announcement that Team High Road is picking up title sponsorship from Columbia Sportswear, and last week’s announcement that Saxo Bank is picking up co-sponsorship of Team CSC for the remainder of this year, and title sponsorship for the next three years, it seems that things might be looking up on the cycling front …

Is it a coincidence that all three of these teams have strong, independent, third-party anti-doping programs?

VeloNews | Boonen tests positive for cocaine

Paris-Roubaix winner and former world champion Tom Boonen has tested positive for cocaine, Het Laatste Nieuws reported on Tuesday.

The newspaper said that the 27-year-old Boonen tested positive for the drug three days before the Tour of Belgium on May 25, although anti-doping officials say the rider will not face suspension since use of the drug is not specifically banned except in competition.

Boonen and his Quick Step squad have scheduled a news conference for Wednesday at the team’s headquarters in Wielsbeke, Belgium, promising “an annoucement regarding the current situation.”

More on the Boonen situation on VeloNews here and here, Eurosport, and the Guardian UK.

Will be interesting to see what comes out of this. I can certainly understand the allure of cocaine … when I was younger, I did a fair amount of “experimentation” with various illicit chemical substances, cocaine amongst them … I know firsthand what the effects are, how it makes the user feel, and why someone would want to continue using.

Thankfully, after a really bad night in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco involving glass pipes, getting robbed (twice), and the offer of needles (with other substances, which I turned down), I wised up. I have been clean since August 1991; almost 17 years at this point.

This is not some huge confession that I’m putting out here … I’ve never really hidden this from anyone, and have discussed it fairly freely when the topic has come up. I’m certainly not proud of it, but nor am I ashamed of it.

To me, there is a huge difference between taking drugs to cheat, and taking drugs to escape. What I did, and what Brother Boonen has been doing was seek an escape from the pressures of our lives. Different pressures I’m sure, but not always easy to admit and seek help for.

Hopefully, this will be Boonen’s wake-up call, and he’ll seek the help he needs, rather than continue down the same path that Marco Pantani and Jose Maria Jimenez have traversed, to their unfortunate and tragic deaths.

And lest anyone worry, based on other posts on the blog over the past year or so, as bad as my life sometimes seems to me now, it’s not nearly as bad as it was in the last 1980s and early 1990s … I am in no danger of falling back into old habits.

I’m not even drinking really … a beer here and there, but I can’t remember the last time I’ve had a real cocktail. It certainly wasn’t at home. I still have the same 4 unopened bottles of vodka in the freezer that I’ve had since posting about the The Great Vodka Taste Test last fall.

VeloNews | Merckx: Happily retired and carefully weighing his options

[Axel] Merckx was close to rejoining the peloton in a much more active way after opening negotiations this spring to join Rock Racing as a sport director, but the deal fell through following differences with team owner, Michael Ball.

Merckx told the Belgian daily La Deniere Heure that a compromise couldn’t be reached on key issues as who would have control of the team.

“It was an interesting project and I saw it as a true challenge. It’s a big sponsor with a big budget. They have the money to do things in the right way. It’s the type of sponsor to bring a fresh view and an exciting image to cycling,” Merckx said of Rock Racing. “I didn’t have the feeling that I could really make my own decisions. I couldn’t have total control, especially in the recruitment of the riders. It was the patron who had the power to make that decision, but he didn’t know anything about cycling. I didn’t want to work like that.”

Merckx is hoping to return to cycling as a sport director at some point, adding that cycling “is really growing on the other side of the Atlantic,” but it won’t be with Rock Racing.

With the successes that Rock Racing have had thus far this season, I wonder how well they’d do if they actually had someone who knew how to direct a team behind the wheel …

VeloNews posted the following article after my earlier post today on Rock Racing and the Tour de Georgia.

Michael Ball: Georgia’s promoters had one condition, “Don’t freak us out.”

Rock Racing team owner Michael Ball said Friday that his team earned an invite to the Tour de Georgia based on just one simple condition.

“They said, ‘can you conduct yourselves in a way that doesn’t freak us out?’ ” Ball said in a conference call with reporters.

He said that at Georgia he will not be accompanied by the Hollywood-style entourage that followed him at the Amgen Tour of California. He also said the team would not bring podium girl models to Georgia, although he said that’s because the models were unavailable, not because of his promise to avoid freaking anyone out.

Rock Racing had filed suit against the race when it was not invited, but dropped the suit this week when the race announced that the Saunier Duval team was not going to attend and that Rock Racing would fill the spot.

At the same time, Rock Racing was named as a Founding Sponsor of the race. Ball said his company’s sponsorship of the race was not a condition of its invitation.

“I know it could appear that way,” Ball said. “My intention is to support cycling. This is another great American tour and from the get go we have tried to get involved.”

Somehow, I doubt that my earlier post had anything to do with this comment, but I find it funny that other people were obviously thinking the same thing.

VeloNews | 2008 Tour de Georgia

Rock Racing gets in

Domestic team Rock Racing was not originally invited and had threatened take race organizer Medalist Sports to court over a disputed verbal invitation, but was given Saunier Duval’s team slot Tuesday. With that settlement, Rock has signed on as a founding sponsor of the Tour de Georgia — the event’s highest sponsorship level.

“My commitment to cycling is long-term and I am proud to support this world-class race which has featured such winners as Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis,” Rock team owner Michael Ball said. “As a tribute to the state of Georgia and to the rich tradition of this race, we plan something special for the final stage, so stay tuned.”

Hmm … sponsorship? Or bribery (on Rock Racing’s part) / extortion (on Medalist Sports’ part)? The timing of this sponsorship announcement is awfully suspect … making it seem as though the sponsorship is part of the agreement to let Rock race … a nice little quid pro quo.

The exchange of money does not make either the team OR the organizers look good.

From Velonews: Rock Racing sues to get into Tour de Georgia

Rock Racing is suing the Tour de Georgia’s owner and its organizing company, asking to be let into the race that starts April 21.

The team’s owner, Rock Racing LLC, filed a complaint April 8 asking for an injunction against the race’s owner — the Tour de Georgia Foundation, and its organizer, Medalist Sports, court records show.

A hearing in the case is scheduled for Tuesday in superior court in Fulton County, Georgia.

Rock Racing spokeswoman Martine Charles said the team had an “oral agreement” with Medalist Sports to participate in the race.

“It was revoked at the last minute. We’re pursuing legal alternatives,” she said.

Last month, Medalist’s Jim Birrell told VeloNews that Rock Racing was not invited to the race simply because there is not enough room for the team.

“There are a finite number of slots we’re interested in filling, and it’s hard, there are too many qualified teams to extend invites to, and not enough slots,” Birrell said.

Has a lawsuit ever helped anything in professional cycling, except draining the coffers of the team?

At least the Amgen Tour of California was honest about why it was excluding various members of the (Crack) Rock Racing team … doping allegations, and open investigations into Operación Puerto.

Medalist’s story seems unlikely, but convenient. Rock Racing is bad for cycling … even for the clean riders on the team (and I’m sure the vast majority are), the bad boy image doesn’t help. And the Escalades and podium girls just make it all about image; not about the sport.

Tick-tock, tick-tock, how soon the implosion for the Rock?

Three races disappear in less than a week. From www.cyclingnews.com today:

Tour of America cancels for 2008

It may no longer be April Fool’s day, but it would be understandable if you thought otherwise as the organizers of the first Tour of America announced on April 2 that their race for 2008 would not materialize. Dr. Frank Arokiasamy, Ph.D., president of Aqu Sports, organizers of the race, had announced previously that last Monday, March 31, would be the go/no-go decision date – and apparently the decision was to wait another year.

“After we announced the Tour of America last fall, we hit the ground running to make the event happen in 2008,” Arokiasamy said in a press statement. “Everyone we have spoken with wants to see a ‘Tour de France-style” race here in the United [sic] We want to work with USA Cycling and UCI to establish this event as a compliment to the major international races, and at the same time not conflict with established races in the United States. Overall, we want to make sure the Tour of America strengthens the sport of cycling and the race calendar. In addition, potential sponsors and route cities have expressed strong support for a fall 2009 race.”

Further down the same page:

Tour of Virginia also cancels 2008 race

Another race on the National Racing Calendar (NRC) circuit in the United States has announced a major change for 2008. The Tour of Virginia, formerly the Tour of Shenandoah, posted on its website this week that it is cancelling the 2008 event due to a lack of funding. “I’d be lying if I told you I wasn’t supremely frustrated, devoid of confidence and depressed after having this experience,” event director Matthew Butterman on the race web site regarding attempts to sign sponsors for this year’s event.

“From the start of this event, we have pushed forward under the assumption of ‘build it and they will come,’ ” the statement said. ” ‘They’ refers to private corporate and state financial support. The state has been unwilling to invest in this event… So we built it anyway with the hope that a media friendly, attention-getting event would eventually attract private support either from within our venue community network, or from the outside. This has not happened to a sustainable level despite what must be described as our best efforts as a grossly underfunded promoting organization”

And finally this news from a few days ago:

Tour de ‘Toona shrinks to one-day

The Tour de ‘Toona, held in and around Altoona, Pennsylvania, will shrink to just one day for 2008. After 20 years, the race had grown to seven days. What remains is a criterium on July 27 in downtown.

“I’m just disappointed this year we’re stepping back, but we hope next year to come back even stronger,” Race Director Larry Bilotto said to the Altoona Mirror. The organization plans to return to a full schedule in 2009.

Bilotto said the steering committee needed a break, especially after contending with lawsuits related to a former race director and a rider injured in the 2005 edition, deaths of committee members and recent sponsorship struggles. He did not elaborate on the latter.

How much of it is the economy, and how much is the current state of cycling, with all the doping scandals, lack of a “proper” big name American star cyclist to generate interest in the sport, especially with all the politicking between the UCI and race organizers in Europe throwing things into further disarray.

It doesn’t take a genius to recognize that it’s going to get worse before it gets better, as well. Soon Versus will start cutting back their Tour de France coverage to an hour or two a day (like ESPN did back in the 1990s), and then eventually down to a 1-hour special at the end of the season (like has happened with the Vuelta a España the past few years …

Thankfully, there are online sites like cyclingnews.com and VeloNews to provide coverage. Other video-based sites are popping up and getting bigger as well, like WCSN.com and Cycling.TV … and those of us who are serious Euro race junkies will still be able to get our fix.