The Next US Postal??

(x-over posting from the cafe)<br /><br />i recently met an aussie woman who runs a pro (div. 2) cycling team called flanders-iteamnova. <br /><br />www.iteamnova.com <br /><br />she's got a great idea. to fund the team, flanders-iteamnova sells yearly subscriptions to cycling fans. for around US$110 you get a team jersey, socks, gloves, hat, h20 bottle, newsletter, etc., plus the satisfaction of helping this up-and-coming team. phil liggett has signed on, so it seems legit. the team's plan is to qualify for the Tour de France by 2006. <br /><br />with sponsors pulling out of pro cycling faster than cipo in a final sprint, it's good to see these blokes taking a new approach. maybe some american teams oughta try this! whaddya think? <br />

i saw this post in the cafe too. i think it is a great idea. do people realize that the avarage &quot;pro&quot; rider gets paid about $25,000 US per year?

Don't they generally get quite a bit more from endorsements though?<br />

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What do you mean there's no granny gear? How do you go up hills? Ahh, I see, you don't have hills.

Are you serious? thats gotta be the min wage?

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Steve
CyclingForums.com

I'm sure the I-Team Nova idea has collapsed. Sean yates was their Directeur Sprortif and now is with CSC. Basically they ran out of money. I've seen this in UK before with Amore et Vita who tried a similar thing and now we have Endura Sport doing the same idea.

I don't want to be a soothsayer. but these ideas don't seem good to produce Tour de France contending teams. Why would Joe Bloggs want to pay into a sport where the big boys (Mapei, Mercatone, Festina et all) are pulling out due to all of the doping stories continuing??

There are two other threads about this here:

http://www.cyclingforums.com/t8108.html
http://www.cyclingforums.com/t7716.html

I'd like to think they keep going, but its going to be hard!
Isnt Amore e Vita still around?

cheers!

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Steve
CyclingForums.com