Leopard Trek merger with RadioShack

Well, I was wrong!

Tim Vanderjeugde, spokesman for Leopard Trek, said “On the team's behalf, I can flatly deny that there is a merger with Radioshack,"  and I said - in a post that [luckily] I didn't get time to finish last night - that that was good enough for me.

Oh dear, I was wrong, and Tim V is no longer to be considered worthy of any respect, should we ever hear from him again. I suppose he was only saying what he was told to, but it's pretty poor to flatly deny something less than a fortnight before announcing that it's true.

So, our own website confirms it, and we are now going to be operating under the clunky name of RadioShack-Nissan-Trek.




So what happens to the trademark?


If this means no more logo I will be spitting mad, as I have it all over the backs of all of my work shirts!







And it means a new kit, damn, damn, I was just getting used to the stripes (*throws down half-made Leopard-Trek flag in annoyance - yes, Jolanda, I hadn't quite finished it, thank you for asking - and wonders if it's worth finishing it, just for the one race*).

And I know we are all thinking this, so I might as well say it up here as well as below - this is a pretty shabby way to go about any sort of changes to your new team, not telling the actual riders or the staff.

These are all people who threw up perfectly good jobs and contracts with other teams to come to the Leopard-Trek fold.

They gave up their futures (known or unknown) and their history and their loyalty to their old teams.


And now, barely a year into it, all change: and they weren't even told about it.


That's pretty disgraceful. And as for the business of l'Equippe publishing a list of riders who they thought were going to be thrown out, well, that is just disgusting, and there is no excuse for the Leopard-Trek management for not handling that side of things properly.


It's all very well to call it a merger - RadioShack were in deep trouble and were folding, there is no denying that, so it's not a merger, Leopard are taking over the Shack team.  I notice that the press release phrases it that the two sponsors, Shack and Nissan, are joining team Leopard.  So why do 11 of the Leopard riders automatically get the shove - publicly - when surely the bulk of the shoving should be to the Shack riders?


I think that we, the fans, are entitled to grumble at this point: we, too, brought our loyalty to the new team, and supported them, even through the stupid LAY-oh-pard pronunciation fiasco, and we are rewarded by having our new team chopped up and relabelled before we even get into our second year.


As I see it, the only good thing about this whole affair is that Nissan are coming on board. (Says she, former Nissan employee and big-time supporter of the brand.) So I can look forward to seeing Nissan across various Schleck-flavoured backsides.