Rabobank has announced that it is to be the main sponsorship partner of the 2012 World championships, to be held in the Limburg region of the Netherlands. The Dutch bank, which sponsors the eponymous ProTeam, as well as the under-23 Continental team and the Dutch national team, has committed the sum of 950,000 Euros to the championships, which will be held between September 15th and 23rd next year.
"At Rabobank we have now been actively involved in cycling in the Netherlands for 16 years,” said Bert Bruggink, a member of Rabobank’s executive board. “From the start we have not only supported the top level, but also the full bredth of cycling; this partnership a perfect match for us.”
The World championships will be held over nine days in 2012 since, as well as the return of the junior events to the main championships, there will also be a team time trial for trade teams.
“Some of our riders will ride for their country in the World championship in Limburg, and for the first time in history our team will participate in the World championship team time trial. Besides the World championship gives us a perfect opportunity put cycling in the spotlight to a wide audience."
The 2012 championships are to be organised by a collaboration between six Limburg municipalities: Maastricht, Valkenburg, Heerlen, Sittard-Geleen, Landgraaf and Eijsden-Margraten. All races are scheduled to finish just over the top of the Cauberg hill, on the outskirts of Valkenburg, just as the Amstel Gold Race does each April.
"An event of this scale can not be organised without the expertise and support of reliable partners," said Jacques Hubert, president of the Limburg Cycling World Championship 2012 Foundation. "We are very pleased with Rabobank as sponsor; a partner who is familiar with sports, with athletes and world-class sporting events; and a partner who has been distinguished itself by, besides investing in the top of the sport, but also in the breadth of the discipline.”
The World championships have been hosted by Limburg five times in the past, four times in Valkenburg and once in Heerlen. The most recent occasion, in 1998, saw Oscar Camenzind of Switzerland win the elite men’s race on a day of heavy rain, worsened by an oil spill on the course shortly beforehand. The championships also saw the return of Lance Armstrong to top-level competition after his recovery from cancer. The American finished fourth in both the road race and time trial, having recently finished fourth in the Vuelta a España.
While a welcome injection of cash into the sport, this announcement will come as a disappointment to many, since the big rumour circulating around the current World championships in Copenhagen, Denmark, was that the bank was set to announce the creation of a women’s team to be run alongside its two men’s teams.