Team Garmin Cervelo secured the World Tour license even after leaving its co-sponsor, BigMat
UCI published the list of World Tour teams for 2012 and a big surprise was when Team Garmin Cervelo was included in the list of the final 15 teams, despite some prior issues regarding registration and submission of documents.
The team was filling under the name of Garmin-BigMat but as its co-sponsor called off the deal, it had to revert back to its former name, Garmin-Cervélo. Nonetheless, it was guaranteed a WorldTour license for the coming season.
The American squad went through a hard patch when its sponsor, BigMat, backed out right when the team was ready to apply for the license.
Jonathan Vaughters told cyclingnews, “We signed a binding letter of intent for BigMat to be the co-title sponsor of our team for next year. So we filed with the UCI under Garmin-BigMat but at that point in time, literally right as we were filing, BigMat
told us that they were not going to make good on the agreement”.
Team Garmin has been included in the total of 15 teams that will ride under the UCI World Tour license.
The 15 teams with UCI Pro Tour license are: BMC Racing Team, Astana Pro Team, Garmin-Cervelo, Katusha Team, Lotto Cycling Project, Lampre-ISD, Liquigas-Cannondale, Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team, Sky Procycling, Saxo Bank Sungard, RadioShack-Nissan, Rabobank,
Omega Pharma-Quick-Step Cycling Team, Movistar Team and GreenEdge Cycling Team.
There are still hopes for five more teams to gain the World Tour license for the coming season, they are: Geox-TMC, AG2R La Mondiale, Euskaltel-Euskadi, FDJ and Team Europcar.
Garmin was looking forward to start the new season with the French co-partner, BigMat, but since it backed out at the last minute, the team is still looking for a partner for the coming season.
Jonathan Vaughters said, “It’s disappointing that we have to ask for further investment capital because I want to be paying money back to him from his initial investment in the team. I don’t want to run a team on daddy’s money”.
Vaughters mentioned that team will continue to hire the most talented and well suited riders for the coming season. The financial issues will not stop the team from achieving its goals for 2012.
Team Garmin’s performance in the current season was good enough to impress any sponsor in the near future. Jonathan is however certain about whether he finds a co-sponsor or not, he will definitely pick up the best team to target the next season.