Cervelo to create a new pro team?!

donrhummy

This would be so cool, and cycling can always use more teams as a number of them are folding...

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/Cer ... 65864.html

According to rumours circulating in Belgium and Spain, bike manufacturer Cervelo could be about to create its own professional team in 2009, with Tour de France winner Carlos Sastre the possible team leader.

The question is, if they create their own team (and poach CSC's team leader) what will CSC do for their bikes?

BTW, it's a smart move for Sastre. Even though he won and he's the team leader, he'll be a year older and I think likely to be replaced by Andy Schleck.

iainf72

Interesting. I'd read there was likely to be a new Swiss team...

With Henn involved you could put together a really good squad. Sastre and if they could nab Kohl + the Mekon...

GroupOfOne MkII

In theory it's a very good time to be starting a pro-team (if you've already got the sponsors / backing secured), as there's two very good teams closing (CA & Gerolsteiner), plus several other teams shrinking their riding staff slightly because of the end of the ProTour, so a lot of decent riders in the market place.

Reckon with Sastre + some from CA and Gerolsteiner you'd have a pretty tidy 20 man squad. Wonder if they've been speaking to Mr Dekker too?

Ste_S

donrhummy wrote:

This would be so cool, and cycling can always use more teams as a number of them are folding...

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/Cer ... 65864.html

According to rumours circulating in Belgium and Spain, bike manufacturer Cervelo could be about to create its own professional team in 2009, with Tour de France winner Carlos Sastre the possible team leader.

The question is, if they create their own team (and poach CSC's team leader) what will CSC do for their bikes?

BTW, it's a smart move for Sastre. Even though he won and he's the team leader, he'll be a year older and I think likely to be replaced by Andy Schleck.

Rumoured to be Specialized (amongst others). I hope they don't get Cancellara to do that "I'm Specialized" hand sign thing

drenkrom

Loads of CSC guys coming up for renewal next year. With the close relation Cervélo have had with them, I reckon they could nab a good few.

Very refreshing to see a new team coming in rather than old classics going away.

donrhummy

If Cervelo does come to be and they run things like they have their company, it's going to be super exciting, cutting edge with a lot of new, fresh ideas! I hope they do this.

andyp

I'd be surprised if this happens - how can a small company like Cervelo fund a top level pro team?

iainf72

andyp wrote:

I'd be surprised if this happens - how can a small company like Cervelo fund a top level pro team?

I wondered exactly the same thing.

How many units can they actually shift?

timoid.

Makes no sense. Surely they get all the exposure they need with CSC?

iainf72

They had a turnover of CN$11m in 2004. (running at a loss)

40-70% growth per year which should put them in the 35-40m region now. Not sure on profit. They'd need to sink 5m or so into a team per year.

iainf72

Ahhh, according to velo-club they'd be getting a chunk of the budget from a Swiss financier (not UBS I'll bet)

Jez mon

But surely, people are less inclined to buy their bikes with the current economic climate??? I know biking is the new golf but Cervelo bikes are all expensive, they don't really have any entry level bikes, so surely any extra awareness that they gain from sponsoring a whole team is wasted.

What bikes are CSC/Saxo riding next year? Well I've heard the following rumors, Scott, Trek and Specialized.

I hope they keep running Cervelo....or swap to Isaac bikes!

donrhummy

They're super strong in the triathlon market. It seems like almost half the people are on those bikes. I visited a high end bike shop in NYC (they also have a training facility there) and 70% of the people rode cervelos and everyone coming in to talk about buying a bike went straight for the cervelo when looking at frames. Also, Cervelo says they've doubled their non-north-america sales, so they're picking up in the rest of the world.

andyp

Even so, they'd need to find something in the region of €6 million per annum as a minimum in order to be the headline sponsor of a bike team. That's a lot of cash for a company making high end bikes to find.

DavidBelcher

Ste_S wrote:

donrhummy wrote:

This would be so cool, and cycling can always use more teams as a number of them are folding...

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/Cer ... 65864.html

According to rumours circulating in Belgium and Spain, bike manufacturer Cervelo could be about to create its own professional team in 2009, with Tour de France winner Carlos Sastre the possible team leader.

The question is, if they create their own team (and poach CSC's team leader) what will CSC do for their bikes?

BTW, it's a smart move for Sastre. Even though he won and he's the team leader, he'll be a year older and I think likely to be replaced by Andy Schleck.

Rumoured to be Specialized (amongst others). I hope they don't get Cancellara to do that "I'm Specialized" hand sign thing

How about BMC? It's about time they had a bit of good luck re. bike supply to big teams. Third time lucky after the Landis/Vino debacles?

David

Interestedcp

Timoid. wrote:

Makes no sense. Surely they get all the exposure they need with CSC?

Of course Cervelo would like to stay with Team CSC-SB, but the problem seems to be that they are severely outbidded by Trek, Specialized and Scott USA. According to rumours the bidding sum is now around 3.5 million euros not including free bikes etc. So Cervelo is out shopping for a new team to ride their bikes since they need to be seen being used by a pro team if they want to grow.
It is interesting that Trek is mentioned as a new CSC-SB sponsor, do they think it makes sense to sponsor two top teams, or are they dumping Astana for some reason?

iainf72

"DavidBelcher wrote:

How about BMC? It's about time they had a bit of good luck re. bike supply to big teams. Third time lucky after the Landis/Vino debacles?

They're sponsoring an American team who get invited to some of the Swiss races, so highly unlikely.

donrhummy

Interestedcp wrote:

Timoid. wrote:

Makes no sense. Surely they get all the exposure they need with CSC?

Of course Cervelo would like to stay with Team CSC-SB, but the problem seems to be that they are severely outbidded by Trek, Specialized and Scott USA. According to rumours the bidding sum is now around 3.5 million euros not including free bikes etc. So Cervelo is out shopping for a new team to ride their bikes since they need to be seen being used by a pro team if they want to grow.
It is interesting that Trek is mentioned as a new CSC-SB sponsor, do they think it makes sense to sponsor two top teams, or are they dumping Astana for some reason?

I could see Trek being afraid that Astana won't be invited to the TDF next year. They're mostly a US company and as great a race as the Giro is (love the mountains!), it's as close to an unknown race in the USA as you can get.

LangerDan

Current rumour is that Cervelo will take over the structure of the Gerolsteiner squad as primary sponsor BUT will drop the squad from Pro Team to Pro Continental level. Agritubel & Garmin have shown this year that it is not necessary to be a ProTour squad to get the big invites and it is a much cheaper way of operating a squad.

Don't know how Cervelo's recall and replacement of up to 6,000 carbon forks will affect their piggy bank, though.

Rabobank are supposed to be announcing a move from Colnago to Giant this weekend.

donrhummy

http://www.insidetoronto.com/News/Centre/article/54273

Business is increasing...

Needless to say, the Tour de France and now the Olympic Games has generated priceless exposure.

“We did notice immediately,” Cervelo co-founder Phil White said. “Even when we were still in Paris, I got a text message from one of our distributors, saying ‘Hey, ship more bikes, the phones are ringing off the hook’.”

“I think it’s going to be a bit of a surge this year, which would be great,” he continued.

They're expanding...

Success has brought steady growth for the company. White estimated the Liberty Village staff at about 40 with “13 or 14 engineers here in Toronto. ... All the engineering is done here in Toronto.”

The company also now has a presence overseas, where the sport is more popular, with a new head office in Neuchatel, Switzerland. The other company co-founder, Gerard Vroomen, originally from the Netherlands, is now at that location.

“We do all the assembly for North America here (Liberty Village) and we do assembly for Europe out of the Swiss office.”

A third composite-testing facility is also now operating in Southern California.

andyp

40 staff in Toronto. How many in Neuchatel?

There is no way on earth they can be creating enough revenue with that number of employees to be the headline sponsor of a top level pro team.

iainf72

andyp wrote:

There is no way on earth they can be creating enough revenue with that number of employees to be the headline sponsor of a top level pro team.

The money will be coming from somewhere else AFAIK. They'll obviously chip in but I suspect it's going to be a vanity project (see Oleg Tinkov)

knedlicky

LangerDan wrote:

Current rumour is that Cervelo will take over the structure of the Gerolsteiner squad as primary sponsor BUT will drop the squad from Pro Team to Pro Continental level.

Gerolsteiner sport director Christian Henn is rumoured to join Cervelo, but not many of the riders, maybe that's why the dropping a level.
Schumacher is said to join Kayuska (spelling?), while Wegmann and Fothen to join Milram.

grindley

Thought they are joining up with Rapha for a Womens Pro team along with a club team :?:

200 limited edition Cervelos in Rapha black part of the deal :shock:

Or was this just one mans wet dream :roll:

grindley

Thought they are joining up with Rapha for a Womens Pro team along with a club team :?:

200 limited edition Cervelos in Rapha black part of the deal :shock:

Or was this just one mans wet dream :roll:

donrhummy

Well, it happened!

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id= ... aug28news3

What's interesting is that it's not just Cervelo who's leaving, but a bunch of the component companies too. Really cool idea for them to create a team that is geared toward helping them all do R&D. It probably means they are partially able to offset certain costs both in terms of actual R&D costs as well as being able to writeoff the team costs on their taxes.

Rumors of a new Cervélo professional cycling team have been confirmed, at least in part, by a formal announcement by the Canadian bicycle manufacturer on Thursday. The Cervélo TestTeam represents a co-operation between bike industry leaders Cervélo, Zipp, Speedplay, Vittoria and 3T, all of which have previously sponsored the CSC team, who will use the squad as a proving ground for product development.

Also, the team is being put together not for their results but for their use as an R&D and PR tool. Not totally sure how I feel about that.

"Currently pro cyclists are judged only by their racing results, which places a lot of pressure on them to perform," he said in a statement. "Race performance is only one component of Cervélo TestTeam. Our riders will also be involved in field-testing and providing technical feedback. In addition they will participate in activities with our customers, making them more accessible to cycling fans."