American ProTour squads HTC-Columbia and Garmin-Transitions have announced a partnership with USA Cycling that will raise funds to benefit the USA Cycling Development Foundation. Both teams will be auctioning seats in their team cars for the cobbled Spring Classics.
"Teams Garmin-Transitions and HTC-Columbia have long been committed to helping develop young American talent," said Steve Johnson, USA Cycling's CEO. "So we were thrilled when they came to us together with the idea of an auction to benefit USA Cycling's Development Foundation. To us, it is another example of the top two American teams working as one to continue to benefit the sport."
Team HTC-Columbia has two seats on offer to experience the Tour of Flanders on April 4th and Garmin-Transitions is auctioning two seats for Paris-Roubaix on April 11th. You can find the auction live on eBay from February 9th, 2010 to February 19th, 2010. The highest bidder for each auction will not only experience race action from a team car but will also have the opportunity to meet the riders and stay the night at the team hotels.
"Team HTC-Columbia is focused on developing young athletes into the future leaders of the sport," said Bob Stapleton, owner of Highroad Sports. "More than half of the athletes on Team HTC-Columbia are under 26 years of age and are enjoying personal growth and success. The majority of our 85 victories in 2009 come from our youngest athletes such as Mark Cavendish. We look forward to working with USA Cycling in their mission to guide young American athletes to grow from aspiring amateurs to top-level professionals."
Teams Garmin-Transitions and HTC-Columbia are significant advocates of development initiatives and have a strong history of supporting young American riders. The auction marks the next step of the teams' partnership to continue helping USA Cycling produce future generations of international cycling stars.
"This is one of the best days of the racing season and the viewing experience is superb. We at Slipstream Sports are very happy to partner with High Road in supporting USA Cycling in this way," said Doug Ellis, Chairman, Slipstream Sports. "Team Garmin-Transitions was founded to foster the next generation of American cycling champions and several of our athletes, including Christian Vande Velde, David Zabriskie, Danny Pate, Timmy Duggan, Steven Cozza, Kirk Carlsen, Peter Stetina and Tyler Farrar have had the benefit of working with USA Cycling's National Team programs as young Americans. That is a tradition we want to continue with new programs such as this auction."
The auction is now live at the links below:
Tour of Flanders with HTC-Columbia
Paris-Roubaix with Garmin-Transitions
The auction winners will ride in a mechanic's car to view the cobbles of the Spring Classics up close.
Details of the packages follow:
Parlez vous Pave?
TEAM HTC-COLUMBIA: TOUR OF FLANDERS PACKAGE - APRIL 4, 2009
2 seats in a Team HTC-Columbia mechanic's car where winners will catch Pave action up close
1 night at Team HTC-Columbia hotel
Meet-and-greet with Team HTC-COLUMBIA
Signed team jersey
TEAM GARMIN-TRANSITIONS: PARIS-ROUBAIX PACKAGE - APRIL 11, 2009
2 seats in a Team Garmin-Transitions mechanic's car where winners will catch Pave action up close
1 night at Team Garmin-Transitions hotel
Meet-and-greet with Team Garmin-Transitions
View the finale inside the Velodrome
Signed team jersey