The Irony  May 5, 2010 by   Filed under Body  I believe that
Bjarne Riis holds the keys to the future of professional road
racing in continental Europe [Cue the sounds of a needle
scratching a record/glass shattering/monkey's rioting at the
banana packing plant].  For years we’ve been talking about the
impact that each new doping scandal would have on the sport’s
ability to attract sponsors able to support teams on the
financial level necessary to race the UCI’s evolving, global
race calendar. And, certainly, sponsors have dropped out after
prolonged exposure to the negative publicity of having their
athletes frog-marched out of the Grand Tours, heads hung in
shame. What brand benefits from having their name associated
with a bunch of anorexic junkies?  And yet, every time we lost a
stalwart sponsor like T-Mobile, we gained a Garmin or a
Columbia. Even the recent emergence of teams like RadioShack,
Sky and BMC suggest that there are still deep-pocketed brands
who believe in cycling. It is, perhaps, noteworthy