Coming to America
Team Slipstream looked poised to be the only American Pro-Tour team as soon as next year. Now, they will have to settle with being one of two American Pro-Tour teams. That is because Team High Road has officially moved its headquarters to California.
High Road wants to make a point that it is not a German team….it is an international team. Team director Bob Stapleton said, “We are open to committed athletes from wherever they come from. One of the simple pleasures of this team is the international diversity and personal character each athlete brings to the team.”
Stapleton was a T-Mobile employee after selling his mobile phone business to them a few years back. He was then put in charge of cleaning up the team from the horrendous drug scandals that it has had. His efforts looked to be working just before several of his riders were found to be doping during different events last year. The scandals in 2007 proved to be too much for T-mobile and Adidas, and the team had to reorganize under its new name “High Road.” They were recently snubbed by the Giro d’Italia without an invitation to ride. Maybe they should have renamed themselves Long Road, because that is probably what it will take to get back into the big races again.
Leave a Reply