Jonathan Vaughters shows off the team's new kit(Image credit: Daniel Simms)
Garmin Barracuda was protecting their tour leader in yellow, David Zabriskie, during the third stage.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
Jonathan Vaughters explains his plans for the 2012 season(Image credit: Casey Gibson/Garmin)
Garmin-Barracuda will become Garmin-Sharp as of the Tour de France, team owner Slipstream Sports announced Monday. Barracuda will stay associated with the team.
As teams are only allowed to have two sponsor names, the team will officially be known as Garmin-Sharp. “Barracuda Networks will continue as an important co-title sponsor, and team materials and the website will refer to the team as Garmin-Sharp-Barracuda,” according to the team's press release.
Sharp is a world-leading technology provider, offering a wide portfolio of business and lifestyle products in markets across the globe.
"In the year Sharp celebrates 100 years of creating unique technologies and products that bring genuine benefit to society, we are delighted to become Technology Partner to the most exciting team in one of the world's most beautiful sports, which perfectly showcases the convergence of technological and human achievement,” said Paul Molyneux of Sharp Europe.
"Sharp shares our passion and commitment to the best innovations in technology," said Jonathan Vaughters, CEO of Slipstream Sports. "We are incredibly excited to partner with them to together develop technologies that will help our riders do what they do every day, even better."
In addition to the commercial possibilities for Sharp, this deal “also gives them access to some of the best athletes in the world to develop products for the future,” said Matt Johnson, president of Slipstream Sports.
The new kit will be introduced at a press conference Thursday at the team's Tour de France hotel in Belgium.
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