After three years sponsoring cycling's most successful team, Columbia will step down as co-sponsor of HTC-Columbia at the end of the 2010 season. There was hope that the outdoor clothing giant would renew, but Columbia's European representative, Regina Cirmon, confirmed that the extremely successful partnership with Bob Stapleton's High Road Sports will in fact end as scheduled.
"These were the conditions that we reached in our agreement in 2008. We would like to thank Team HTC-Columbia for the success they had the past three years and their support of Columbia sportswear, but when the 2010 season is over, it's over for us," said Ms. Cirmon in a statement reported by feltet.dk.
No company has stepped up as co-sponsor at this point, so Stapleton's High Road Sports will once again stand in as a leading sponsor. The squad will be known as Team HTC-High Road in 2011 according to feltet.
Things aren't looking too shabby for the California based squad with mobile electronics giant, HTC, at the top of the sponsorship ladder and telecommunications entrepreneur, Stapleton, covering the rest through his personal company, High Road, and most importantly, Mark Cavendish is a happy, loyal rider in the High Road stable, which will mean many more victories in 2011.