Taiwanese bicycle manufacturer Giant has agreed a one-year deal to replace Argos North Sea Group as the co-naming rights partner of Iwan Spekenbrink’s UCI ProTour cycling team, according to De Telegraaf.
The Dutch newspaper said Argos-Shimano will be re-branded as GiantShimano for 2014, ending three months of sponsorship and financial uncertainty around the team.
In October, Spekenbrink announced that a company with “European and international recognition” had sealed a three-year agreement to replace the outgoing Argos. Shortly after that news became public, star rider Marcel Kittel and his sprint train signed new multi-year contracts with the team – its future apparently secure – only for the unnamed sponsor to withdraw after the International Cycling Union’s (UCI) registration deadline passed. Details of why the sponsorship collapsed are still yet to emerge.
Giant, which replaced American manufacturer Felt as the team’s bike supplier in November, is said to have agreed to step up as co-title sponsor but only for one year, meaning Spekenbrink must once again seek a new partner for 2015. A team representative told the Cyclingnews website that the new team and sponsor for 2014 will be presented on Monday.
Argos had initially committed to sponsorship for another year, with an option to extend until 2015, before it was bought out by Russian investment fund Sistema and terminated the agreement in October. In 2013, Argos-Shimano won stages at all three Grand Tours, with Kittel triumphing four times during the Tour de France.