Cycling retailer Halfords has taken title sponsorship of city centre racing series, The Tour Series, organised by SweetSpot. The Halfords Tour Series will take place from 25th May to the 24th June in 2010 across ten cities and will see ten top British professional teams battling it out to be crowned the best cycling team in the country.
Hotels.com has signed a one-year deal to sponsor ITV1’s London Weekend Weather in a deal negotiated by MPG.
The Saxo Bank cycling team has managed to pull in an interim sponsor in the form of USsoftware group Sungard following Saxo Bank’s recent decision to withdraw its sponsorship at the end of 2010.
Leading sports brand adidas has confirmed its Official Partner status of Sky Pro Cycling. adidas has spent more than six months working with Sky Pro Cycling to produce nearly 100 different bespoke pieces of apparel and accessories. Over 14,000 units of kit will be supplied to the team per year.
adidas has formed a strong and successful association with British Cycling over a number of years and the progression to work with team principal Dave Brailsford and Sky Pro Cycling is a natural one.
Robin Money, Head of Sports Marketing, adidas UK & Ireland, said: “The adidas partnership with Sky Pro Cycling is one we are proud to be taking on. adidas has worked successfully with British Cycling and Dave Brailsford for a number of years, supplying riders with the very best in technical apparel.”
As well as apparel and accessories for Team Sky itself, adidas has developed a range of both on and off-bike products that will be available to purchase from retailers in March 2010.
The story of the week is British bicycle manufacturer Raleigh’s decision to return to professional cycling.
From next year, a UK-based outfit called Team Raleigh will begin racing. Initially it will target UK-based races. But the long-term game plan is to reach the top of the European racing scene within five years - by which it means having a serious tilt at the prestigious Tour De France (TdF).
In a press release, the company said: “Raleigh aim to re-establish themselves at the very height of professional road racing again, 30 years after their 1980 Tour de France win -thus uniting their marketing and global range strategy.”
Although no riders have yet been announced, Chris Truett as been named as team manager. Consultancy F10 has also been appointed to start developing the roster of team sponsors which will be critical to the project’s success.
In another cycling-related development, Tour de France-winning team Astana has signed an exclusive three-year sponsorship deal with Kazakhstan’s state holding company. The size of the deal is not known but is is expected to put an end to the team’s well-publicised financial difficulties.
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