The first major victim in pro-cycling due to the doping mess is unfortunately my countries largest cycling sponsor Rabobank. A big blow for Dutch and international cycling, but I can’t even blame them. So glad I’m a triathlete.
As of December 31 Rabobank stops sponsoring the professional cycling team. The bank has come to this decision after reading the USADA report which made them lose their confidence that the international cycling world is able to provide a clean and honest future for the sport. Rabobank has sponsored the team for 17 years.
As I understand the team will continue operations under a ‘white label’.
It sucks but the team was seriously underperforming as is (with or without doping). Wonder what will happen now with sponsoring and pro-licensing and most importantly, with the riders.
Rabo was sponsoring womens cycling, junior cycling, cyclocross for 17 years. this is sad
, rabo has been such a die hard sponsor… even with the rasmussen affair… even when boogie got implicated by landis … that Dekker thing… but now with the Levi confession it was the last straw …the investigation didnt just ruin individuals but has made pro cycling is synonomous with doping . There is going to have to be a huge media campaign about how its going to be the cleanest the tour has ever been to restore public interest and sponsor image … but I dont know how they will achieve that since the dopers only got caught through confessions under oath not through testing. They will need to announce that the information revealed by the investigation has lead to even better testing techniques or something …
Edit- Rabo is staying with the amateur sponsorship
Wrong they’re only pulling the plug on the pro women’s and men’s teams. Cyclo, junior, and the continental teams will remain. Radio interview with head of sponsoring also reveals that Rabobank will honor all contracts and keep paying the riders in 2013, as the team will ride under what they called “White Label” until a possible transition can be found.
Rabo is also pulling out of womens cycling, junior cycling, cyclocross after 17 years in the sport. this is sad
I only saw that they were pulling out of pro (men & women) cycling. Still sad, but if the article I read is right then at least they’re continuing to support “grass-roots” cycling. Would’ve been nice to see continued support for women’s cycling though…
“Rabobank will end its sponsorship of both the men’s and the women’s professional cycling teams at the end of this year but will continue its ties with amateur cycling as a sponsor, including the youth training and the cyclocross team.”
I didnt write that clearly, what I meant was that cycling’s images is smeared and since levi confessed that rabo wasnt seperate from the scandal it was one of the last straws. up until now it was still possible to point at individuals as the odd rotten apples but the public wont see it like that killing sponsor appeal
Sponsors will put up with a few doped riders, but everything is being shown to be a lot deeper than that now. UCI covering up Lance positive test in Tour de Swiss, $200,000 ‘gift’ from Lance to the UCI straight after. UCI telling Lance when he was going to be tested. Now the new revelations about systematic money laundering through the sport. More and more riders admitting using drugs after the sport had heralded a ‘new generation of clean riders…’
Forget whether its true or not. It almost certainly is but the fact that all this goes on within a couple of months show the sport and its governing body is corrupt to the core. Sponsors might be happy to sponsor teams with a few drug cheats, but when its the whole sport of cycling and the guys running it that are corrupt, you are either on the inside or the outside. Most sponsors are on the outside and some are bound to pull the plug. Why be seen to support a sport that is endemically corrupt??? Its not about Lance anymore, its about the entire network of the sport.
When I came to holland I was surprised to see that even the prime minister went to work on a push bike.
The tour is popular since there were a few winners in the past and they always had some success. You can get full coverage of tours on public tv with an hour talk show that follows. And that is with belgian channels broadcasting in dutch in reach at the same time.
Some articles say that Rabobank has been involved in cycling for 30 years. Rabobank was to dutch cycling like tulips and cheese to Holland
I don’t care what the company says, this isn’t from doping. It’s from lack of return on investment.
I disagree. Cycling is so much bigger in Europe. The exposure they get, even without TdF success, is huge.
Yeah but that doesn’t necessarily mean its worth dumping $20 million per year into cycling…that is a lot of money you have to make just to break even. I don’t know how much they pay but I couldn’t ever see sponsorship of a cycling team being worth it for anyone other than a cycling company. And even then, …
Thomas Dekker
Michael Rasmussen
Michael Boogerd
Levi Leipheimer
Dr. Geert Leinders
If it was about doping, they should have dropped out back in the late 1990s or early 2000’s. They are about 12 years too late. How in the world did Rabobank stay in cycling after the whole Rasmussen thing?
It always saddens me to see sponsors pulling out of cycling. It is the one sport that is actually doing something. This only keeps the other sports with their head in the sand as they don’t want to go through what cycling has. I mean come on - how corrupt is FIFA. They have to know their players are full of dope, but do nothing. Could you imagine the skeletons in their closet?
I don’t care what the company says, this isn’t from doping. It’s from lack of return on investment.
I disagree. Cycling is so much bigger in Europe. The exposure they get, even without TdF success, is huge.
Yeah but that doesn’t necessarily mean its worth dumping $20 million per year into cycling…that is a lot of money you have to make just to break even. I don’t know how much they pay but I couldn’t ever see sponsorship of a cycling team being worth it for anyone other than a cycling company. And even then, …
I am obviously not privy to the discussions of the board of directors of Rabobank, but I doubt that this sponsorship deal ever needed to be a financial net positive. Rabobank’s presence in the Netherlands is pretty overwhelming; there’s probably not many people that will decide to bank with them instead of the competition because of their cycling sponsoring. Likewise, their presence abroad is not big enough to justify a sponsorship deal of that magnitude. In my opinion this was always a way for the bank to entrench themselves into the Dutch psyche as an institution of the people if you will.
At the time they started their involvement with cycling, their big competitor, ABN Amro, was deeply involved with Ajax, the country’s main soccer team (they may still be, I’m deeply out of touch these days :-). Soccer is always been more associated with city life, while cycling is a more rural affair. Traditionally, Rabo has been the farmer’s bank (the “bo” in “Rabo” is for “Boerenleenbank”, “Farmer’s credit”, one of the parties in a big merger in the late 70s). So sponsoring cycling juxtaposed nicely against the business bank sponsoring the big Amsterdam soccer club.
I think any sponsor who has been on the fence and/or looking for a graceful exit will easily be able to point this the USADA findings/confessions and justify their exit. Maybe that’s a good thing, though. If the money dries up, maybe the code of silence will go away when these guys realize they won’t have jobs if they allow their friends and peloton mates to dope.
It always saddens me to see sponsors pulling out of cycling. It is the one sport that is actually doing something. This only keeps the other sports with their head in the sand as they don’t want to go through what cycling has. I mean come on - how corrupt is FIFA. They have to know their players are full of dope, but do nothing. Could you imagine the skeletons in their closet?
While I agree that it is sad to see big-name, long-time sponsors pull out of cycling - at least temporarily - lets please do away with “yeah, we’re bad, but the other guy is worse defense.” This isn’t an actual defense and should never be used after about the age of 8.
Also, there is the fact that soccer is about 10 million times more popular and the entire budget for worldwide pro cycling would be a rounding error on FIFA’s books. The Premier League alone dwarfs everything cycling related, never mind the other giant Euro leagues such as Spain, Italy and France, the national teams, World Cup etc.
