The UW Cycling club (a UW Club sport) announced Tuesday that Trek Bicycle Corporation, based in Waterloo, Wis., has chosen to extend a major sponsorship offer to the team. The team will join Team Radioshack, former home of now-retired Lance Armstrong, and a select few other mountain bike, road and triathlon racing teams as a sponsored Trek Cycling Team.
Trek Stores of Madison have supported the team since fall 2008 with discounts on equipment and bicycles.
""The difference this year is we are dealing with Trek Bicycle Corporation in addition to the Trek Stores,"" UW Cycling president Tyler Van De Voort said.
The new sponsorship offer expands on the existing partnership by offering bikes to racers and jerseys designed by Trek Bicycle Corporation.
""The goal is to win a national championship,"" Van De Voort said. ""With Trek offering a partnership that would provide their bikes to our riders, our top riders will have professional bikes and even the new riders will have access to professional equipment. This will help us achieve that goal.""
The support from Trek staff is overwhelming.
""Dean Gore, director of Global Marketing at Trek Bicycle Corporation, has his heart set on this,"" Van De Voort said.
""We are trying to recruit top level junior riders in Wisconsin. We want to be known around the country,"" Van De Voort said of the future of the club.
Top rider Alex Meyer could not keep in his excitement about the new sponsorship deal with Trek.
""Any time you get a partnership this strong from a corporation, there's no way to not be excited,"" Meyer said.
""Making sure our [top riders] are supported is important, but [moving up] is also something a lot of people have and will strive for,"" Meyer said.
The sponsorship is slated to go into effect sometime this fall. With races this weekend for mountain biking at Michigan Tech and cyclocross starting in late October as well as the road racing season starting this spring, the team looks forward to this new partnership.
