Almost exactly a year ago, I wrote a post about the potential goldmine (and pitfalls) for a sponsor to become involved with a rumoured British team in the 2010 Tour de France.
Well, a year is a long time in sport. Two days after my post, Sky rode headlong into cycling sponsorship with the timing of Mark Cavendish on the Champs Elysees. Soon after they announced their deal with British Cycling, the team cleaned up on the track in Beijing, and now in the 2009 Tour we’ve seen Bradley Wiggins come in fourth (the best result for a Brit in 25 years) and the ‘Manx Rocket’ win a total of six stages as well as wearing the green jersey (awarded for sprint points) for part of the race.
All of a sudden all the talk in the media is about Team Sky in 2010, headed by cycling supremo David Brailsford and a real confidence in our ability to shine in this sport. Any doubters about the sustainability of cycling after a history dogged by drug scandals need only look at the Mont Ventoux stage where an estimated half a million fans lined the twisting roads to the top.
Congratulations to Sky who took the plunge into the sport at what could turn out to be the tipping point for cycling in Britain.
By Dominic Curran on July 29th, 2009
Tags: Cycling, Public relations, Sponsorship, Sport
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Sky have done very well with this deal and launching a series of mass participation events (Skyride)last week was a good moves as well. I hope Wiggins joins Sky after his Garmin contract expires, but I’m not so sure Cav will. He’s got a great team at Columbia who ride their guts out for him and he knows how important they are in setting him up for those wins. Still I’m looking forward to see what Team Sky can do next year. It will be harder than getting on top in the track world though as most of Europe don’t bother with track very much.