Trek-Volkswagen Team Disbanded
Trek has officially announced that the Trek-Volkswagen team has come to an end, leaving a large group of top pro riders without a team for 2009 (and no time to find one). Â The demise is largely due to Volkswagen’s non-renewal of their title sponsorship and Trek’s prior commitment to increasing its European presence in 2009.
Some of the riders interviewed by VeloNews seemed really caught off guard by the news, but my conversations with Jeremiah Bishop (pictured above winning the ‘08 Iceman Cometh) over the past few months showed he knew something was up. Â He, along with “Rad” Ross Schnell, will have partial sponsorships from Trek, and Chris Eatough has one year left on his contract.
Other big names affected include Sue Haywood, Travis Brown, Alison Syder and Roland Green. We’ve got some interview requests out there, we’ll keep you posted on what these riders are gonna do.
Comments
Never been much of a Trek fan but it sucks that the team has to disband. They’ve been one of the ongoing teams in the sport and to me that was a good thing for the stability of professional mountain biking. Sadly, I wonder if it’s days in U.S. sport are numbered. It’s not a spectator or TV friendly sport therefore it’s always a challenge to get sponsors or any type of real new and TV coverage. Good luck to all the team folks finding a new squad.
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