Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Thursday, December 17, 2015

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Bicycles are almost as good as guitars for meeting girls -  Bob Weir, Grateful Dead

Segafredo will co-sponsor Trek team

Here's the news from the team:

We are delighted to announce Italian coffee brand Segafredo has committed to a three-year co-title sponsorship effective January 1, 2016.  Trek-Segafredo will be the same thrilling team you have come to love, our stripes aren’t going anywhere, and adding a global leader in coffee in Segafredo will allow the team to grow into what was envisioned from the outset; in a nutshell, exciting times lie ahead!

The partnership was officially presented in Treviso, Italy in the presence of Massimo Zanetti, President of the MZB group, Joe Vadeboncoeur, Vice President of Trek Bicycle and Luca Guercilena, General Manager of Trek Factory Racing.

Also present were Classics specialist Fabian Cancellara, the team's Tour de France leader Bauke Mollema, and Italian sprinter Giacomo Nizzolo who showcased the new Trek-Segafredo jersey, which remains true to the team’s identity since the inception of the team in 2014.

Fabian Cancellara in the new Trek-Segafredo jersey

Massimo Zanetti: "When I was a child, my father took me to a Giro d’Italia stage. I saw Coppi and Bartali; Coppi with the pink jersey, Bartali with the tricolor jersey of the Italian champion. I was so impressed and fascinated that, from that time on, I always said to myself that sooner or later I would sponsor cycling."

"Today is that day, thanks to Trek, a great team composed of riders from Italy and from all over the world…It is a bit like we are at Segafredo! I really hope we are going to achieve important successes once again as often happened in the past in other sports such as Formula 1, where Segafredo became three times world champion with Rosberg, Lauda and Prost, not to mention the great friend Ayrton Senna who drove his F1 car for a long time with Segafredo on board."

Joe Vadeboncoeur: "Everyone who rides knows that there is nothing in the world that goes better with cycling than coffee. We are thrilled to welcome Segrafredo to the team and are looking forward to racing together in 2016 and beyond."

Luca Guercilena: "The partnership with Segafredo is wonderful news. Since the start of the team two years ago our performance and recruitment plan has revolved around long term thinking. With Segafredo we have found a partner that shares the same values. The importance of this deal and the security it offers will allow us to invest even more in the roster that we have and develop young riders."

Segafredo Zanetti is one of the brands owned by the Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group, a major multinational corporation composed of more than 50 companies that does business on every continent. The Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group is one of the world’s largest coffee producers, with 2.4 million bags of green coffee beans. It is listed at the Milan Stock Exchange.

Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group manages every step of the production cycle of its own coffee, by controlling the entire roasted coffee value chain – from the procurement of the raw material to its roasting, and eventually to the marketing and logistics of the products and their markets – guaranteeing consistent, top-of-the-range quality and service worldwide.

Coffee roasting is an art that requires experience and the ability to satisfy the traditions of every client because each taste is unique and inimitable.
That’s why each product was created for a specific market, with 18 production plants in Italy, Austria, Brazil, Costa Rica, Finland, France, Poland, Singapore, Thailand, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States and Vietnam.

That’s why about 30 international brands were created, each a leader in its own area or sector, including Segafredo Zanetti, Boncafé, Brodies, Chase and Sanborn, Chock Full O'Nuts, Hills Bros., Kauai, Meira, MJB, Tiktak. Not just coffee brands, but also brands for high-quality regional products such as tea, cocoa, and spices.

To complete the business model, companies pioneer in the production of professional espresso machines and coffee-making equipment for cafés, La San Marco, as well as in the production of fine products such as coffee pods and capsules and espresso coffee makers for office coffee services, Segafredo Zanetti Coffee System.

Thanks to its vision, Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group has created one of the largest international café chains designed to offer the finest coffee, anywhere in the world: from Paris to Tokyo, from Miami to Hong Kong, from Buenos Aires to Abu Dhabi, from New Delhi to New York, from the Caribbean to the Australian Coral Reef.

Cancellara will ride 2016 Giro d'Italia

Before we leave Fabian Cancellara, it should be noted that he plans to ride the Giro d'Italia for the first time since 2009. Cancellara is planning on making 2016 his final racing season. Cancellara still has not snagged a Giro leader's pink jersey (maglia rosa).

Cancellara in the 2009 Vuelta leader's gold jersey. The leader's jersey became red in 2010.

He has led the Vuelta and the Tour, but he wants a complete set of leader's jerseys. His 2016 racing schedule calls for an early season build-up to the classics, especially the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix and then on to the Giro.

He's hoping to grab the Giro's pink jersey with a good ride in the opening prologue in the Netherlands before the Italian national race heads south to Italy.

Luca Paolini's doping case to go to UCI Anti-Doping Tribunal

Luca Paolini tested positive for Cocaine July 7, during the Tour de France. Cocaine is banned, and the Italian was both expelled from the Tour and quickly fired by his team, Katusha.

Luca Paolini wins 2015 Gent-Wevelgem

The UCI has determined that the case will go to the Anti-Doping Tribunal where he could be handed as much as a four-year racing suspension. The UCI has said it will issue no more statements regarding the case until the case has been adjudicated.

Paolini's last victory was the 2015 Gent-Wevelgem.

Lotto-Soudal gets new co-sponsor

The team sent this announcement:

Lotto Soudal is proud to announce a new and important partnership. As of 2016 the Belgian pharmaceutical company Eurogenerics will join the Belgian Cycling Project and will be visible on the left side of the race shorts with its brand Mobiflex®. For Lotto Soudal the cooperation with Eurogenerics means a further reinforcement of the existing partner structure.

Jef Hus, General Manager Eurogenerics: “For Eurogenerics the partnership with Lotto Soudal is the first step into the cycling community. Our company, which has been integrated in the German group Stada AG since 1991, was a pioneer in the development of generic drugs in Belgium 35 years ago. Meanwhile, Eurogenerics has reached the Belgian top in its line of business. The partnership with Lotto Soudal is a way to reinforce our position.”

“Our company has two divisions: EG (generic drugs) and NeoCare (branded products). With Mobiflex®, one of our brands from the NeoCare division, we’ll be visible in 2016 on the left side of the shorts of the WorldTour riders, the ladies team and U23 team. Mobiflex® is a dietary supplement to keep the joints flexible. Mobiflex® can be bought at the pharmacist without a prescription and in our range it’s the product that leans the most towards the needs of ‘the man and woman in movement’, either a housewife on the bike, an amateur sportsman, a professional or someone who rides his electric bike. For us it’s about all those target groups, not only for Mobiflex®, also other products of the NeoCare range are more than suited for all different target groups!”

“We can identify ourselves with the values that Lotto Soudal stands for: honest, recognizable, close to the people and for all layers of the population. Visibility is one thing, but the next years we want to further reinforce our image and through the Belgian Cycling Project we want to get a complete view of all target groups that are linked to the bike. As a pharmaceutical market leader in Belgium we need to play an important social role, not only related to medication, but more and more related to prevention – because it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

Marc Sergeant, manager Lotto Soudal: “The past years the operational team has been working hard on developing the structure. The partnership with Eurogenerics is the latest proof of it. Companies with such a background and a stable basis are of course ideal to close a deal with.”

“With the National Lottery of Belgium and Lotto at the basis of the structure, the long partnership with co-name sponsor Soudal and the expansion of the partnerships with Ridley, Vasco and G&V and new partnerships like now with Eurogenerics, we have a strong range of companies which are all firmly attached to Belgium and have large national and/or international interests. Thanks to them we have the chance to let a team with a strong Belgian identity, combined with top riders from eight other European countries, perform on the highest level and to invest in talent development.”

“That’s why I am so proud that with Eurogenerics we can link an important player in its line of business to our cycling project. I think I may say that Lotto Soudal presents itself as a broad-minded team, open to new initiatives; a team that gives partners the opportunity to strive for maximum return in Belgium and abroad thanks to the ambassadors that riders actually are. 2015 was a success for that, but in 2016 we want to continue on the same path, both when it comes to sport performances and commercial aspects.”

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