Due to a lack of a second big sponsor for next season, the current Caisse d’Epargne team management is reported as being very worried by the possible loss of its ProTour licence for 2011.
According to the Spanish newspaper AS, the country could even be left without a ProTour team, as Euskaltel-Euskadi is also expected to be without a licence due to a smaller sponsorship deal. Footon Servetto is set to lose its ProTour status at the end of the year.
The sponsor Caisse d’Epargne has made it know that it is leaving pro cycling, and Eusebio Unzué plus the rest of the management are trying to line up replacements. They have one backer in place, but they are only set to put in three million euros. It needs to find another of a similar size but, thus far, that search has proved fruitless.
The team is arguably paying the price for its long-running support from Alejandro Valverde, in face of mounting evidence that he was guilty of involvement in Opéracion Puerto. The team claimed that the rider was being prejudiced against by the UCI and others and stubbornly refused to suspend him. The Murcian was finally banned by CAS earlier this year, by which point Caisse d’Epargne had said that it was terminating its backing a year earlier than expected.
Unzué’s squad was previously backed by Reynolds and Banesto and won the Tour a total of six times (five with Miguel Indurain and once with Pedro Delgado). However while its place in next year’s Tour is still thought likely, the team will drop to Pro Continental level if it cannot find more backing. That would move it to the same level as the Xacobeo Galicia team.
It is also set to lose two big names; Luis León Sánchez is heading to Rabobank, while Giro d’Italia runner-up David Arroyo is expected to join Denis Menchov in Astana.
In their place, it is thought that Samuel Sanchez will move from Euskaltel Euskadi, which will lose the Olympic champion due to the one million euro reduction it faces in its budget.
Caisse d’Epargne had initially hoped to sign Alberto Contador, but simply can’t afford the rumoured five million euro salary he now commands.
Spain was one of the countries most strongly affected by the Operación Puerto affair and the country has been accused by people such as UCI President Pat McQuaid as having a softer attitude to doping than others. Those problems, that perception and the resulting negative media exposure is likely to be a part of the difficulty in finding new backers from Spanish companies.
In contrast, other countries with a healthier image of cycling such as Britain (Team Sky) and Luxembourg (the new team set to feature the Schleck brothers) are experiencing high interest and periods of growth.