The rumours had it since a few days already, the Dutch bank confirmed it at the end of this afternoon: Rabobank adds a a women's team as it's fourth cycling team.
In 2012 it will be the 16th year that Rabobank sponsors a cycling team. Indeed, in 1996 the Rabobank pro team started. Also present as a sponsor of the Dutch federation KNWU, of the U23 team Rabobank Continental Team and since 2010 also as the sponsor of an off road team (cyclo cross and mountain bike) which is called Rabobank-Giant Offroad Team, Rabobank has always very well taken up the role of a responsible sponsor of Dutch cycling*.
Indeed, the goal has always been to allow Dutch cycling to progress globally in both branches (road and "offroad"). This will again be the case, from 2012, in women's cycling.
From the 1st of January 2012 the orange-blue coloured bank takes over the cycling team of Marianne Vos, which i currently known as Nederland Bloeit. The team will be built around the Dutch rider who finished 2nd in the World Championships in Copenhagen last week. Even though there has been no further information about which other riders will continue to be part of the team in 2012, it's most probable that Annemiek van Vleuten who won the Grand Prix de Plouay and thus the UCI World Cup a few weeks ago (see the interviews as well) will also be part of it.
Currently the other Dutch riders of the team are Loes Gunnewijk, Janneke Kanis, Noortje Tabak and Marieke van Wanroij but the team also has 4 foreign riders: the Swiss Emilie Aubry and Patricia Schwager, the German Sarah Düster and the English Emma Trott. They are managed by Jeroen Blijlevens, directeur sportif of the team and winner of 4 sprints in the Tour de France, 2 in the Giro d'Italia and 5 in the Vuelta a España.
The team will be officially presented early December and now knows it'll have the support of the Rabobank for at least 2 years. Other sponsors will be Giant which will provide the bikes and insurance company Interpolis which is partly owned by Rabobank.
* several local offices of Rabobank also sponsor local cycling events and Rabobank also each year publishes a cyclotourism calendar
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The reaction of the concerned parties
On the sponsor's side, there's an explanation about the reasons of this new sponsoring. Bert Bruggink, member of the bank's board of management, said: setting up a women's team is a logical next step since we support cyclism in a broad way. We're sponsoring women's cycling since a long time already through our partnership with KNWU. By sponsoring a team around Marianne Vos we add the missing piece of the puzzle.
Harold Knebel, director of Rabobank Wielerploegen, added: We hope that our experience and expertise will allow women's cycling to progress. This sponsoring is not really a surprise. We've been talking with them since a long time now. This was the right moment to continue to support Marianne and her team because of the uncertainty around the possibility to continue.
The CEO of Giant, Tony Lo, declared: Giant and Rabobank share a deep commitment to the sport of cycling. Together, we have a history of supporting successful road, off-road and cyclocross programs, and we're happy to extend that support with a new world class women's road racing team.
As a reminder, Rabobank will also be the main sponsor the World Championships in Limburg in The Netherlands in 2012.
(photo illustration of this article: Marianne Vos by Thomas Vergouwen/velowire.com, the car by Rogier Schilperoord) door Thomas Vergouwen
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1 comment | 5098 views
this publication is published in: Women's cycling | Marketing
by Bernard over 
by Bernard over
Goedzo, brengt de vrouwelijke Merkx genaamd Marianne Vos wat meer onder de aandacht, wat ze ook zeker verdient.