Unlike the more league-oriented sports, cycling sponsors simply come and go. This is not like the New York Yankees that has been around for a long time or a basketball franchise with a rich history like the Boston Celtics or the New York Knicks.
As I have written here before, the major sponsor in a cycling team does not run the day to day operations of the team. For example, team Lance Armstrong’s former team, US POSTAL was ran by an entity called “Tailwind Sports”. It is Tailwind Sports that goes around looking for potential sponsors by telling them how good a vehicle cycling is in promoting their product. Some sponsors will sign a 1-year contract or a multi-year contract with options along the way. Options include the right of the sponsor to walk away, for example, if there is a positive dope test or the right to extend the contract after it.
The current, longest sponsor in the peloton today is LOTTO (85-up to present). LOTTO is a national lottery based in Belgium and is in its 24th year of sponsorship. Unfortunately, they had yet to win the Tour de France. Former rider Cadel Evans came in second twice for the Belgian squad. DISCOVERY CHANNEL, on the other hand, didn’t stick around so long, stayed for just 3 years (05-07) but won 2 TdF with Armstrong and Alberto Contador. KAS, a Spanish softdrink company, sponsored a cycling team for 30 years while ONCE, another lottery from Spain, stayed for 23.
The longest sponsor to get involved with cycling was Bianchi, the venerable Italian frame builder. From 1889-1900, 1906-1966, 1973-74, 1993 and finally in 2003, when Jan Ullrich almost beat LA.
Shut out from the SEA Games, almost…
With the pissing contest still on between the two rival sporting organizations, the Philippine Olympic Committee and the Philippine Sports Commission, each had its own line-up for the SEAG. While the POC was the recognized group of the SEAG, it was the PSC that was recognized by the UCI, the governing body of cycling. The result was that only Maritess Bitbit, a native to Toledo City and the former SEA Games champion in the MTB XC event, was allowed to participate out of the dozen cyclists who were already there.
Then acting like a wood-gatherer instead of a sports official, Go Teng Kok, who is affiliated with the POC, allegedly “hinted” that they will defy the orders and compete. Fortunately for RP Cycling, one cyclist, who obviously had more common sense than GTK, said that it was better to go home saying that defying orders will endanger the future participation of RP cyclist in future UCI-sanctioned events.
RP Cycling is in a catatonic state since Marlboro closed its cycling account in 1998. RP’s cycling program has never grown as expected like the programs of Malaysia and Taiwan, countries we usually dominate. The reason of course is politicians dipping their fingers on cookie jars where they don’t belong.
The problem isn’t going to go away soon, with the elections taking front page in the next six months.
It would have been exciting to watch our very own MTB XC rider Nino Surban win is first gold in the SEAG. Alas, he was beaten to the starting line not bys rivals by his own cycling officials.