The Katusha team unveiled a new title sponsor on Tuesday, with shampoo brand Alpecin confirming it is switching their backing after two seasons with the Giant team. From 2017, therefore, the Katusha team will be known as Katusha-Alpecin.
The agreement had been rumoured since the summer, when the Giant-Alpecin team announced that Sunweb would become its new title sponsor from 2017. Alpecin signed a four-year agreement when it joined Iwan Spekenbrink's team in 2015, but that will come to an early end.
“Cycling is no different to football, where players, managers and sponsors can change every year. It's part of the game,” said Alpecin's managing partner Eduard R. Dörrenberg when asked about the switch at a press conference at the Alpecin headquarters in Bielefield, Germany.
ADVERTISEMENT
"As important changes were made in the team, we had to review our strategic goals. We then realised that we could, and should, take a new and, for us, very exciting direction in view of the current situation."
Alpecin is a German brand and their arrival can be seen as part of the Katusha team’s drive to achieve a more international identity and shed their reputation as a "closed" and unapproachable team.
The team has always had a very Russian identity, owned by oligarch Igor Makarov and with a Russian sponsor and core of riders, but they recently confirmed they will compete under a Swiss licence in 2017, and have signed nine new non-Russian riders for 2017 to take the count of nationalities on the roster up to 14.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/2dihXYs
No comments:
Post a Comment