If you've been watching the 2009 Giro d'Italia stage 7 live feed this over at Universal Sports this morning at all, you might have noticed the Astana jerseys seem to be lacking a little something – the majority of their sponsors. It may be tough to see the new sponsor-light jerseys for most of the seventh stage , as the temperature has dropped and rain threatens (just like my bike commute in this morning), most are wearing jackets.
The new jerseys lacking sponsors are a visual protest for the Kazakh federation who has not paid their Astana riders in over five weeks. Andrey Zeits, the sole rider from Kazakhstan is the only team member at the Giro d'Italia not wearing the protest jersey.
The UCI has given Astana a deadline by May 31 for sponsors to fulfill their contractual obligations. If that doesn't happen, the Astana team's last race may in fact be the 2009 Giro. I'm not sure what that would mean for the individuals to race in the '09 Tour de France. Obtaining new sponsorship by that deadline would be pretty tough, as it's a pretty big bill &ndash in the neighborhood of $14-20 million annually.
Rumors have also swirled that Lance Armstrong may try to shoulder the the sponsorship all by himself if June approaches with no change in the current sponsorship dilemna. If his goal is to promote his fight against cancer/cancer research, that would be a wonderful way to get his message front and center, but at a pretty hefty price tag.
I tried to take a couple screen shots as the live feed rolled to get some images of the new jerseys they're sporting in protest. I found out it was hard to take a decent quality screen shot of a live Flash video feed, but the four images to the right, should at least give you an idea of the new visuals. Thanks again to Universal Sports for swooping in the day before the 2009 Giro d'Italia to offer us in the United States live coverage.
Lance Armstrong said in an interview that a pro team costs in the neighborhood of $14 to $20 million/year.
Thanks, Fritz!