Great News for Cycling
Could professional cycling's darkest days be coming to an end? If you believe the old Woodward and Bernstein adage of "follow the money," there's evidence this morning that the sport may finally be recovering from the damage done by a decade of doping scandals.
Team Slipstream-Chipotle, the Boulder-based squad which is sponsored by 5280, announced today that it has signed GPS-maker Garmin International as its title sponsor through 2010. Effective with the start of the Tour de France on July 5, the team will be known as Team Garmin-Chipotle. The team said it will unveil its new jerseys on July 3 (don't worry, I've seen them, and the team's trademark argyle is still part of the mix).
For more, the press release is here, and Velonews has a strong look at cycling's recent sponsorship woes here. The official announcement will be made via a webcast this morning at 10 a.m. Denver time.
In other happy news for the sport, Boulder's Taylor Phinney, the 17-year-old phenom who captains Team 5280, the junior development team owned by Slipstream Sports, set a new world junior pursuit record Monday. The effort secures Taylor's place on the Olympic cycling team this summer. We've written about Taylor before on this blog, but look for a major profile of him in the July issue of the magazine.
When will it end?
Sigh. Doping scandals – when will it end? It’s such a shame the beautiful sport has become synonymous with words like “doping”. I am an amateur long distance runner and occasional cyclist, you know, one of those women who has a pair of Dansko sandals under their office desk but report to work in cycling shoes because they have cycled there. I hate to think of the name of any sport, running or cycling, tarnished by a few black sheep, innocent or not. I know how hard it is for athletes to get to a certain level only to have all that stripped away. That must be really painful. However, I would have to say, nothing beats the adrenalin rush of putting on your sports shoes just before a race. So to all cyclists, put on your cycling shoes and just pedal!