posted January 6, 2009 by trek7k

Nick Martin at the Fontana NORBA (courtesy trekfactoryteam.com)

It’s the end of an era – team Trek-Volkswagen will not continue in 2009, forcing dozens of racers and team managers to scramble for new sponsors, according to VeloNews. Trek says the decision came after Volkswagen decided cut its involvement with the team making it impossible for Trek to finance on its own. It’s really a shame to see such a venerable team lose sponsorship with such previous and current standout mountain bike riders like Allison Sydor, Jeremiah Bishop, and Chris Eatough.

It sounds like Trek may be shifting some of its sponsorship focus to Europe as it ramps up support for the Trek Global Racing team. Team rider Susan Haywood summed up the racers’ frustration best:

Who would have ever guessed that Trek would pull out of domestic racing? I was with the team for 10 years, and it was such a good program built around some really good racers. To see Trek pull the plug with such little fanfare is frustrating. I think it deserves a better goodbye.

Via The Wash Cycle

Related posts:

1. MTB News: Eatough Retiring, Trek Rallying For Olympics, and Himalayan Stage Race
2. Mega MTB Recalls: Trek, Cannondale, and Norco
3. Australian mountain biker Jongewaard reconsidered for Olympic team
4. Breaking: Trek Eliminating Gary Fisher Brand
5. Singletracks Sponsored MTB Race Team: Faster Mustache

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 6th, 2009 at 1:53 pm and is filed under MTB News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response by logging in and using the form at the bottom of this post, or trackback from your own site.