BigMat to sponsor FDJ in 2012 after leaving Garmin-Cervelo at the last moment
French cycling team, FDJ, will be sponsored by the French hardware chain, BigMat as mentioned by L’Equipe. Initially, Team Garmin-Cervelo was close to signing the deal with the sponsor but the company backed out at the last moment.
Marc Madiot, FDJ Team’s general manager, mentioned that he would certainly welcome BigMat to sponsor the team for the coming season.
Team FDJ has already applied for the 2012 World Tour license and it is believed that the French team will be successful in achieving the license for the coming season.
Marc also mentioned that he was interested to sign David Millar for the coming season but the cyclist was already signed.
L’Equipe quoted him as saying, “We came across one another two weeks ago at the Chrono des Nations and I asked him if he wanted to come and join us. But it was a joke because he was under contract”.
FDJ was founded in 1997 with French national lottery as its first sponsor. The team’s name was changed to FDJeux.com for 2003 and 2004. In 2010, it was finally named as FDJ, which stands for Francaise des Jeux.
It is also believed that the team is still interested in signing Garmin Cervelo’s rider, Gabriel Rasch, for the 2012.
Moreover, it was published in the French news media that the Belgian rider, Philippe Gilbert, has asked Marc to find a place for his old teammate, Jussi Veikkanen.
Team FDJ has reported its total budget of nine million Euros and the final agreement between the two parties is yet to be made.
Team FDJ is hopeful to obtain the WorldTour license and it has already been guaranteed a place at the Tour de France 2012 through a wild card entry.
It is now believed that the only reason why BigMat backed off from Team Garmin at the last moment was because it was signing with FDJ.
The team will ride at the coming season as Garmin-Cervelo because it lost the support of the French hardware manufacturer.
Jonathan Vaughters stated, “we just need someone with a bit of vision to come in and give us the backing that will push us to number one in the world”.
It will be interesting to see if the deal between the Team FDJ and BigMat is finalised as the information has not been officiated by BigMat as yet.