February 1/03 2:41 am - Siemens Mobile/Cannondale Team Announcement

Posted by Editoress on 02/1/03
 

Siemens Mobile and Cannondale To Co-Sponsor Mountain Bike Team
Courtesy Cannondale

Siemens mobile, one of the global leaders in mobile communication, and Cannondale, the world's premier manufacturer of high-performance bicycles, are joining forces to sponsor a pro mountain bike team, that is expected to race among the best. The team will compete under the name Siemens mobile/Cannondale in the 2003 and 2004 World Cup seasons, and it unites some of the world's top professional riders. Rainer-Wurz.com, the company owned by former mountain bike racer Markus Rainer and Formula 1 driver Alex Wurz, helped to bring the companies together and will run the team. Cannondale will provide state-of-the-art racing bikes, technical expertise and support. Siemens mobile will provide cutting edge mobile phones that will allow the team, via triple band technology, to make phone calls in all parts of the world.

The new squad includes some of the world's best pro riders, such as Christoph Sauser (Switzerland), Roel Paulissen (Belgium), Tinker Juarez (U.S.), Hannes Pallhuber (Italy) and Franz Hofer (Italy) for cross-country, and Cedric Gracia (France) and Petra Bernhard (Austria) for downhill and four-cross. The riders come from the Rainer-Wurz.com team and the former Volvo/Cannondale squad, the winningest team in mountain bike history.

The team's contract runs for two years and the squad will compete in the World Cup, the World Championships and all major international and European mountain bike races. The Siemens mobile and Cannondale logos will be featured prominently on the race jersey, the three Cannondale race bikes (the Gemini for downhill, the Jekyll for four-cross and the Scalpel for cross-country), team post-race clothing and the five team vehicles. Cedric Gracia's participation at the Red Bull Ride last week in Australia marked the official debut of the new Siemens mobile/Cannondale team.

Rolf Beisswanger, vice-president and head of Global Sponsoring Siemens mobile, voiced his excitement about the new team. "This high-level team has huge potential and will race among the best. The riders are all technically sophisticated and need partners that they can rely on. Now they have high-performance bikes, the communication equipment they need, and one of the most successful team leaders. This really sets new standards in mountain bike racing."

Saskia Stock, Cannondale Europe's vice-president of marketing, was equally excited about the team. "Cannondale is very proud to be involved with Siemens mobile and Rainer-Wurz.com. We feel this cooperation between three outstanding companies will set the standard for mountain bike racing teams," said Stock. "We have a long, successful history in the mountain bike racing world and we think this team raises the bar once again."

Alex Wurz, of Rainer-Wurz.com expressed his enthusiasm, "We are delighted to have two such strong and professional team partners in Cannondale and Siemens mobile. Cannondale has a very successful history in mountain bike racing and brings a wealth of experience to the team. I think it reflects very positively on the sport that, even in the current economic climate, major global companies such as Siemens mobile are seeing mountain biking as a strong marketing platform."


Note: The Team will definitely happen, regardless of the ongoing situation with Cannondale in the US. all the contracts relevant to the team (and for the Saeco team as well, for that matter) are done through the European subsidiary which hasn't been affected by the filing of Chapter 11