Pro Tour- Will There be Any Teams Left in 2008?
The Pro Tour is in serious disaray right now. One of it’s top teams, Discovery Channel, announced that they won’t be back next year, and there are strong rumors that Astana will be kicked off of the Pro Tour. Add to those, team Unibet. Unibet will disband at the end of this year. The sponsor pulled the plug earlier today. It seems that there are three openings with only a few existing teams ready to take those spots. Barloworld deserves one of the spots based on their performance in the Tour de France and being the #1 ranked team that is not already in the Pro Tour. Team Slipstream has a strong team and deserves a spot, but they weren’t targeting the Pro Tour until 2009. There really aren’t any other existing teams to take the last spot. There is a team forming in Australia which would attract a strong contingent of Aussie riders including Cadel Evans. If they were able to form and nail down a few sponsorships before next year, they would be a great addition. Who knows? There could be more teams fold before next year. The Pro Tour might not even exist next year. There are way too many unknowns right now. One thing is for certain. There is a definite move towards cleaning up the sport. The dirty teams are leaving or being kicked out, and the teams that cannot afford to implement a proper anti-doping program are folding. Only good things can come from all of these changes.
Leave a Reply