Team Inferno is going pro next year as Kenda Pro Cycling presented by Spinergy and touting an “100% American” roster (including staff). I know and like those guys, but the flag waving seems really out of place with cycling culture. Internationalism is part of the sport’s appeal.
From their press release:
“While the program will miss its international contingent dearly, the concept is one that Inferno believes is important. Many teams have collapsed in this pained economy and as such, fewer teams will exist domestically in 2009. This means American racers will be without a home, and to have talented racers from abroad take the few openings that remain simply is not in the best interests of American cycling. This sport is experiencing resurgence in America, and Kenda Pro Cycling p/b Spinergy aims to have Americans at the helm.”
My latest column for ROAD came out at Interbike and talks about the recent reshuffling of teams and bike sponsors. Also, Neil has embedded a couple videos from my Interbike lifestream on his blog, here and here.
At least for the foreseeable future, it’s over. Not surprisingly, the Grand Tours got what they wanted. Although there will still be something called the ProTour, there will also be something called the Historical Calendar including all events organized by ASO, RCS, and Unipublic. These organizers will keep full control over team selections and presumably won’t have their TV rights bundled in with the ProTour. I said a long time ago that the best the UCI could hope to get from ASO would be to handle drug testing, and that’s pretty much what they got. They also get to say that they “sanction” the HC races, which in practical terms doesn’t mean anything.
Furthermore, allowing the UCI to hang around means that the headaches or drug testing, global marketing, and athlete development for HC races are subsidized by the rest of the cycling world. Then again, the rest of the cycling world owes its existence to the Tour de France.
The UCI will say that the ProTour still gives them the opportunity to expand globally, with the Tour Down Under, the Tour of Sochi in Russia, and the Tour of China that will eventually get off the ground. That’s not insignificant, but the US market is has the most potential outside of western Europe and ASO remains the gatekeeper here because of their partnership with AEG and the Tour of California.
Pat McQuaid has said that he expects the teams to re-up on their ProTour licenses now that a settlement has been reached, but I’m not sure why they would. The license offers no guarantee of starting the Grand Tours or any cut of TV revenue, but still requires teams to send riders and staff all over the world to markets where their sponsors might not have any business interests. I don’t see the incentive.
Lots and lots of goings-on at Interbike. It was a long couple of days. I’m not at the point yet where I have actual coherent thoughts but when I do, I’ll post them. Here are some things that were part of the experience.
As I learned from writing the Zipp catalog, the technology that goes into modern race wheels is amazing… and the prices reflect that. But now you can rent a $2000 wheelset for 100 bucks from Echappe Equipment. Well, insurance is $40, a cassette is another $10, and shipping is based on FedEx rates. Carbon-specific brake pads add $52 and you probably need ‘em if you don’t already have carbon wheels, which is probably the case since that’s what you’re renting. So it’s more like you’re getting a $2000+ wheelset for $200+ for the first day, plus another $25 per day after that.
Stilll, it’s a compelling option for a lot of folks, especially semi-serious age group triathletes who base their seasons (lives?) around a couple of race days. And if I’d rented some tubulars, I wouldn’t have pinch flatted a third of the way into the Heartbreak Hill GP that I dragged my bike across the country for (see Cat 3 results)
Before Cyclingnews, this was all the information you’d get about the Vuelta had until VeloNews came in the mail. (It’s on the left, next to the WNBA box score.)
Now that I’m commuting on BART, I get free coffee but no cell reception most of the way, so I’ve been looking at actual newspapers.
Well, sort of. MTV has a announced a new ad network based on “Tribes”, i.e. different subcultures within their audience. It’s a scaled-up version of the Hype Circle network that former Kadisco client Sneakerplay is a part of. They have a very specific look and get great CPMs, even if they don’t do a lot of volume.
What’s interesting is that it’s a move away from automation. The need for relevancy is so great that you can’t rely on searches and tages; whoever’s managing the network really needs to know the subculture and make judgement calls about what sites (or areas of sites) to include and what ads the audience will respond to. Hype Circle seems to work for advertisers, so there’s definitely potential for this model even if it’s more labor-intensive.
The video that MASH taped with Lance earlier this year will be released next Thursday at the RVCA x Cinelli show in at Mellow Johnny’s in Austin. I’ve seen the rough cut, it’s going to be a hit. Don’t forget to read the MASH blog on Arkitip.
