Edited by Chris Henry and Jeff Jones
Re/Max deal a house of cards Despite a press release stating that the American real estate company
Re/Max would be the head sponsor of a new cycling team managed by Belgian Pol De Baeremaecker, it
seems now that this is not the case. The release spoke of a €9 million agreement from Re/Max
over the next three years, with Dutch building giant Unidek and Spanish bike manufacturer Massi on
board as co-sponsors. Two teams were proposed: a "grand" pro team with Division I ambitions, and a
Division III development team.
The announcement was reported on Cyclingnews and widely in the European media, as De Baeremaecker,
called "the most underrated manager in the cycling world", was talking about signing Alex Zülle,
Santi Blanco, Jose Maria Jimenez, Jan Ullrich, Fred Rodriguez and others.
There was just one catch: no-one at Re/Max had heard of any plans to sponsor a cycling team. Both
Re/Max USA and Re/Max Europe confirmed this, and said that they have not been interested in
sponsoring cycling for many years. Furthermore, several riders who were contacted by the team
could not get concrete answers to their questions, and it's now clear that there is no €9
million deal.
The latest is that the team has changed its name to Randstad-Massi, Randstad being the main sponsor
of the Tour de Suisse... To be continued.