Armstrong revelation in l'Equipe

[Andreu]

Armstrong has told l'Equipe newspaper: "Honestly, I don't know whether I'll be at the start of the Tour.

"This year, I achieved a dream. I won a sixth Tour and I made history. Now it's time to try something else."

Armstrong's team boss Johan Bruyneel earlier said the Texan's chances of going for win number seven were a "50-50 possibility".

But Armstrong said: "There are a lot of other things I'd like to accomplish on a bike before I retire. And I tell myself 2005 could be the right time to give it a try.

"I prefer for it to be flexible for I want to be free to decide at any given time about my participation in any given race.

"If it's the Tour, then I'll make a decision when it suits me. It'll be the same for Paris-Roubaix."


I, for one, will be glad...might make for a more entertaining Tdf and it will be really interesting if he mixes it in other races or tours. Could be an interesting 2005 (certainly more interesting than 2004) if does vary his schedule.
A

:beer:

[Bill Bove]

I am a TREK dealer and they are requiring me ante up 2000 freaking dollars for this years TdF promo. He had goldanged better be on that emeffing starting line.

[Johny]

Please check www.believeLANCE.org for accurate info... :rolleyes:

[BumbleBeeDave]

Am I understanding this correctly? Trek is charging you two grand to promote, uh, exactly WHAT, anyway? It’s my understanding that bike companies pay the pro teams to use their bikes. Is Trek making you and other dealers pay for that FOR them? What exactly are you getting for your two grand? Can they PROVE that you are selling more of their bikes just because Mr. Sheryl Crow is riding around France? And that you will make your two grand back in extra sales? And what happens if you say very politely, “No thank you?” Do they drop you as a dealer?

BBDave

[Tom]

The shadowy authorities that run pro cycling weren't amused by the Armstrong-Simeoni dustup in this year's tour. Armstrong is too big a name to take a run at directly, so they wait a while. Along comes Hamilton's blood sample in the same box with a teammates... so they blend the two. Then they purposely accidentally freeze sample B. Hamilton's the delegate American to get whacked. However, because sample B is no good they have wiggle room so he suffers giant hit points but doesn't have to be banned unless he raises too much trouble for them. Phonak rider number two gives them plausible argument that it's a team practice which lends credence to the whole mystery. Meanwhile, they infiltrate his girlfriend's recording studio and pretty soon he gets an anonymous e-mail that tells him to play the latest master tapes backwards. Not only do they sound a hell of a lot better than when played forwards, you can distinctly hear "Ride the Giro if you don't want to end up like Tyler... and Paul's still dead."

[Bill Bove]

BBDave,

Two years ago Trek did the "Ride With Lance" promo. It cost me 1k to be involved. For my 1K I got listed on a special website of participating dealers mentioned during Treks ads on OLN during The Tour, I got some cheesy tags for the staff to wear around their necks and customers got to enter a drawing to win a trip to Austin to ride with Lance or a bike or some other prizes. I backed it up with some in store promos and specials, a free food and beer party during two of the stages, that kind of stuff. I saw ONE (1) new face in the store the entire month of July. One. July in Florida is like Janurary in New York. It is dead. The locals do anything to avoid the heat and the snowbirds, 2/3rds of the population aren't here yet. So last year I decided not to particapate. I passed and put a little more money into cleaning up the shop. I still had two viewing parties with free food and a big screen T.V. This time I did see some new faces but not enough to jump up and down over. For this year, '05, Trek has bought the rights to the old SUPER SALE and along with the Tour promo I'm required to ante up the 2k. No discussion. Their Treks, justification is that the dealers who paid for the promo (600 of 2000) drove business into all Trek dealers so it isn't fair for them to pay to carry the rest of us. So I'm going to have to spend another grand or so getting word out locally, buying food and drinks, renting the big screen... Otherwise if I don't succeed trek will simply say that I didn't do enough on my part to make it a success. all i ask of Trek is that they have inventory when I need it and that if I'm paying to promote the Tour on T.V. that LA be there to get people watching. So far they have struggled with the first one, they had better deliver on the second. Scott bikes do look nice this year.

[Andreu]

So much for free markets and the freedom to commercialise your own business.
A

[BumbleBeeDave]

. . . as being outrageous. It’s business and Trek’s in it to make money. They can’t be blamed for getting as much as they can. But to REQUIRE dealers to ante up without making any kind of guarantees about Lance being in the Tour or being able to deliver inventory when needed they are risking losing dealers. But I guess you have to ask yourself if they really care about losing a few dealers.

I assume from meeting Bill, talking with him, and see his participation and knowledge here on the forum, that he knows his stuff, has a nice store, and knows his clientele of serious riders. Therefore I believe him when he says he saw just one new face as a result of this promo. Bill, if it’s not too proprietary a question, how many bikes do you estimate you would have to sell “extra” to justify the $2k that Trek is sucking out of you? It’s gotta be more than one, even if that “one” is a Madone SL . . .

Additionally, having a large inventory is really expensive for all but the largest bike shop. A store here in the Albany area essentially lost $5k of my business when I was shopping because they could not produce a Cannondale 4000 for me to ride, even when given 30 days to do so. Bill has to be able to get ahold of the right bike in the right size pretty fast in order to make a sale.

If Trek are not delivering on their promos and cannot produce a bike on demand, then maybe it IS time to change the lines he carries.

BBDave

[Andreu]

to make money... so is Bill.
If Trek work this way they are basically restricting Bills freedom to make money too by tying his hands. OK it is not in an overt way but insidious nvertheless. Which in my book is outrageous given big companies like Trek set the "rules of the game" in the first place..but then Bike shops do have the ability tell Trek where to stick their bikes.
A

[Dekonick]

There sure are alot of other really nice bikes besides Trek...

[Bill Bove]

Dave, the first year of the promo it was so easy to determine its success or not. Everybody filled out a contest blank and put in the box, at the end of the promo i had to mail them to trek to go into the big barrell from wich the winners would be drawn. i didn't think it was unethical of me to add any new names to my customer list (not mailing list) from those in the box. One new name.
You know those big COCA-COLA signs in front of convience stores, know who pays for them? Coke does, it's called co-op advertising. What Trek is doing is reverse co-op advertising. the 2K represents about 3-4% of what I will spend with Trek this year. I think it should be the other way around, trek should give ME 2-3% of my business back to me in Advertising. Most of wich does not work anyway, last year I did a mass mailing with a pizzaria, bring your new bike receipt in and get a free pizza. Wanna know how many pizza's I had to pay for? Nada, zilch, ZERO. Does anybody use those coupons? :crap:
Now Trek does offer a lot of services to it's dealers. Most of wich I am not big enough to benifit from. This year they are teaming up with www.bikefitting.com allowing me to buy a size cycle type of fitting rig and a computer program for fitting. The cost; 25 hundred. The software does have many of the top mfrs in it's data base. That will help me sell bikes. Will they spread the payments over an extended time period? NO. I can get it at my regular dating wich is buy it now, it's delivered in two or three weeks and I have a payment due 1/15,2/15 and 3/15. At the same time most of my inventory is due to be paid for. Spreading it out over a few more months would make it so much easier to commit. I'm expecting a pretty good Christmas with the election being over, peoples homes back in order after the hurricanes and such but I really don't want to bet my business on it. That 2 grand could be going to something that would make more money for me instead of down the black hole of summer, read off-season, advertising.
Trek is the number one line of bikes in the country right now and it has been for a couple of years but Giant is eating at their carbon frame business and Wal-Mart is eating away at the low end. I really don't like them throwing their weight around like this. I want Lance's azz on a bike at the TdF. The casual observer only knows Lance and the Tour, if he isn't in it, they won't watch it. We in the business need to get more people in the sport and Lance has been helping. If I am paying for him to ride a Trek bike, I want him to ride it where people will see it.

[jerk]

Am I understanding this correctly? Trek is charging you two grand to promote, uh, exactly WHAT, anyway? It’s my understanding that bike companies pay the pro teams to use their bikes. Is Trek making you and other dealers pay for that FOR them? What exactly are you getting for your two grand? Can they PROVE that you are selling more of their bikes just because Mr. Sheryl Crow is riding around France? And that you will make your two grand back in extra sales? And what happens if you say very politely, “No thank you?” Do they drop you as a dealer?

BBDave

trek does a nation wide advertising campaign on oln and cbs that drives customers to trek dealers....previously the program was voluntary. trek is now maikng it mandatory, the thinking being that all trek dealers benefited from a campaign paid for by only some of the dealer base. according to most shops the jerk spoke to who took part it was a success. all it is is a co-op advertising thing that is manadatory for all trek dealers...not all that uncommon in any industry least of all this one.

[hikeabike]

I was reading this thread concerning Trek and its dealers. Which brought to mind a few rumors I have very recently heard. One is that Lance may have asked Trek to sell off (get rid of) the Lemond brand from their company. I imagine this, if true may be due to Greg's comments earlier this year and recently on the 1 hour "Fearless" show on OLN. Regarding Trek, I also heard Lance may have invested in Ridley Bicycles out of Belgium, which may be a backup in case above rumor is true and if Trek won't oblige, then Discovery Team could be on Ridleys. Again folks, these are just rumors..I'd be very surprised if Trek would ever let Lance go and vice-versa. Thanks, Howard

[William]

I also heard Lance may have invested in Ridley Bicycles out of Belgium, which may be a backup in case above rumor is true and if Trek won't oblige, then Discovery Team could be on Ridleys.

If there is any teeth to this:
One would think that if LA has any interest in having his own brand of cycles out there (like Lemond, Ulrich, Moser etc...), the time he would get the most return is while he can still win major races. That would be the best marketing tool he could use IMHO.

I'd bet it will likely happen. Question is, will it be after he's retired and ride his name? Or will it be while he can ride the name and still ride the bike and win?

William

[Bill Bove]

Head honcho at Trek, Trek has a multi year commitment with Lance that will last long after his retirement and they have no plans for an LA line of bikes. Possibly Trek Bikes, Inspired By Lance? As far as dropping the LeMond line, that would be foolish, as LeMond is currently out selling Trek at my shop and at others too from what I hear.

Jerk, O.K. the TdF promo worked for you in Boston in July. That is your busy season, how would you like it if Trek forced you to buy into a large Kids bike promo for Christmas? We have a different selling season down here. And if only 1/4 of your dealers take part in a promo, maybe you ought to reconsider it's success. Dismal failure for everybody down here.

[bostondrunk]

I wonder what will happen to North American tour coverage if lance isn't there? And I guess Tyler won't be there (no biggie...).
Maybe Ulrich will put in a good year of training knowing his chances are better..

[hikeabike]

Bill, Thanks for clarifying the rumour. I appreciate you taking the time to find out from Trek what the situation is regarding Trek and Lance. Maybe if Lance doesn't race the Tour, he could possibly join Phil and Paul and Bob during the mountain stages for some commentary. Thanks again.