Rabobank Droppage - Lance's Fault

Hey Lance! Thanks for all you're doing for CYCLING!

Rabobank stops cycling team sponsorship

19th Oct 2012 | 07:37

2012 will be its last season

This article was originally published on Cyclingnews.com.

Rabobank has ended its long association with cycling in wake of the USADA case into doping at US Postal. The Dutch bank cited the reason for announcing that it would end professional sponsorship of its professional men's and women's teams at the end of this season. The Dutch bank announced that sponsorship of both pro teams would end on December 31 2012, potentially leaving dozens of riders and staff without a team for next season.

However Cyclingnews understands that the teams will attempt to continue but without Rabobank cooperation, using a similar model used by High Road after T-Mobile pulled out of the sport in 2007. Along with the USADA case that suggested doping within the team, on Thursday the UCI opened a biological passport case against Carlos Barredo.

"The Rabobank cycling team regrets Rabobank’s decision to stop its sponsorship of the men’s professional cycling team. The team was informed about the reasons and understands the decision. We’ve been cycling for 17 years now with the name Rabobank proudly on our shirts and it hurts that going forward we’ll have to do without that name," the team said in a statement.

"The cycling team is very grateful to Rabobank for the 17 years of loyal sponsorship. The sport of cycling should be grateful to Rabobank for all the efforts it has made in the past years to put Dutch cycling on the map successfully. Through Rabobank, many talents have had the chance to reach their potential.

"We are confident that Rabobank will take good care of the cyclists and staff members of Rabobank Wielerploegen BV in the finalisation of this matter."

Rabobank came into the sport in 1996, replacing Word Perfect as Jan Raas title sponsor.

Full statement from Rabobank

Rabobank will end its sponsorship of both the men's and the women's professional cycling teams per 31 December 2012. Rabobank will continue its ties with amateur cycling as a sponsor, including the youth training and the cyclocross team.

Rabobank has come to this decision following publication of the report from the American doping authority USADA last week. This report speaks volumes. Bert Bruggink, member of the Managing Board: "It is with pain in our heart, but for the bank this is an inevitable decision. We are no longer convinced that the international professional world of cycling can make this a clean and fair sport. We are not confident that this will change for the better in the foreseeable future."

Rabobank started its involvement in cycling 17 years ago. Full of conviction and with a clear mission. Because cycling fits with Rabobank, with its clients and employees. Rabobank has expanded the cycling sponsorship during the course of the years to a complete package, from the men's and women's professional teams to the youth team and the cyclo cross.

Bert Bruggink: "Cycling is a beautiful sport, which millions of Dutch people enjoy and a large number of those Dutch people are clients of Rabobank. But our decision stands: we are pulling out of professional cycling. It is painful. Not just for Rabobank, but especially for the enthusiasts and the cyclists who are not to blame in this."

Lance Armstrong's ID

Now that the blueprint for cheating and doping is out there, I am begging all competitive cyclists to not use the methods described in Tyler Hamilton's book, the USADA transcripts, or any of the various media outlets you have read; certainly not the latest issue of Cracked.

I'm not joking. There will be more local drug usage this year in USA Cycling than ever before if testing on the local level isn't implemented.

I once gave Floyd Landis the distinction of Douchebag of the Week. While setting up the Floyd Fairness Fund was pretty douchey, I do have to give the guy credit for being one crazy motherfucker with Twitter and the general media.  Lance Camp's mishandling of Floyd was the start of public accusations from American cyclists, Tour de France riders, Tour champions, not Greg Lemond,?  people. What I really care about is who is the funniest. When it comes down to him and Armstrong with who has the best Twitter account(s) Floyd rules the roost.

People have been asking me to do a post on the Lance Armstrong/USADA thing for a long time. I've been reluctant because I (even me) doesn't see the humor in the effect this has had on the sport I love. Besides, making fun of this situation is too easy and I want to be done with it all. Let's move on and let this whole saga continue to write itself.  Lance Armstrong is having everything he worked hard cheated for taken away from him. (Expect some sick deals on Oakley Jawbones in yellow and black on ebay soon). People who generally aren't interested in cycling consider him a cheater. This all works for me.

Now..the biggest name in our cycling generation is getting dropped. Not by others on the road but by those that have supported him over the years. His former teammates and competitors have spoken out against him. Now, his sponsors are dropping left and right and estimates are saying that he will loose up to $30 million. That also kind of works for me.

He has stepped down as chair of his Livestrong organization. This leads me to question WHY his sponsors are sticking with Livestrong? I believe that some additional details will surface that will show that Armstrong was using Livestrong to not only cover up his guilty conscious and have the foundation serve as a mechanism to point to every single time he got accused (how many times have we heard "I'm not going to abandon the millions of cancer survivors...."), but we have to question if Livestrong may have served as a financial distributor to doping legal costs or even doping itself. Just sayin'.

There are other great cancer organizations to donate to. I urge those companies to donate to those organizations rather than Livestrong. I know I will until I hear Lance say this:

Another One Bites the Dust

Cross is here. For some, just a fun way to stay in shape over the fall and winter. For others, it's cut throat racing with hours of saddle time, strict dieting and countless hours of gluing tubular tires on the line. When things go pear-shaped for some riders and when other riders behind them have video cameras mounted to their whips and then post on YouTube and Facebook, ol' YGD gets a hold of it and the old blog comes out of it's annual fall hibernation. Enjoy!


Wait for it....

 Also, have I mentioned that I have a huge inventory of socks and they are perfect for cross? I didn't? Well, I do and they are for sale now. Click the store button in the upper right corner of this page and get your high cuff sock fix today. Word.