2006 Tour De France: The teams of the Tour

The set up of the UCI vis a vis the professional cycling teams are a universe apart from the set up between the US major leagues and their teams.

To own a team in the major leagues (NBA, NFL or MLB) you have to buy a franchise from the league and then get the players you need based on the draft, free agency or the waivers.

To put up a professional cycling team, a person or group of persons has to create a legal entity. This entity will present a cycling program to a prospective corporation. When the corporation likes what it sees and agrees to the proposal, it will pay the entity the agreed amount for an agreed number of years. The team, though owned by the entity, will be named after the corporation. The corporation, in return, will hopefully gain media mileage from the (mis)adventures of the team.

In spite of the doping problems associated with cycling today, big business know that cycling is the number 2 sport in Europe after soccer and they know that there is a return of investment if they put their money in cycling.

One of the biggest sponsors in cycling today is T-Mobile, the German telecommunications giant. T-Mobile not only sponsors a cycling team but a women's cycling team, the NBA halftime show, soccer and the World Cup, to name a few. Another familiar team is the Discovery Channel, the former team of Lance Armstrong. Before DC, LA's team was sponsored by the US Postal Service after it was privatized.

In the early 90's, a US based squad with LA as a co-leader with Steve Bauer and Andy Hampsten was backed up by the mobile phone maker Motorola. The people behind Motorola were the same guys who put 7-11 in the cycling map in the 80's. Andy Hampsten was wearing the red, white and green 7-11 colors when he won the 1988 Giro d'Italia.

Two teams in the TdF today are sponsored by a local government (Euskaltel-Euskadi, Caisse d"Epergne-Illes Baleares) while a few others are sponsored by a European lotteries (Francais de Jeux, Davitamon-Lotto). Two American based companies are backing up a Danish and a Spanish team respectively, CSC (internet) and Liberty Seguros (insurance).

Sponsors do not come from a single product. They are as varied as you can get. Financial institutions (Credit Agricole, Rabobank, Caisse d"Epergne-Illes Baleares), communications T-Mobile, Bouygues Telecom, Cofidis, Euskaltel-Euskadi) to milk products (Milram), sheet metal (Lampre), agriculture (Agritubel), mineral water (Gerolsteiner), heating products (Saunier Duval), hearing aids (Phonak), parquet floors (Quick Step), insurance (AG2R), gas company (Liquigas) and television (Discoevvry Channel)- they are the businesses who believe that cycling is a good vehicle to sell their products.

Finally, there is no thing as a bad publicity. When watchmaker Festina's team was in the eye of cyclings' worst doping storm in 1998 (the press even dubbed it as, "le Affaire Festina'), you'd think that the watchmaker would pull out of the sport completely. Instead, they stayed for a few more years. Today, Festina is back as the Tour de France's official timer!