By Tim Maloney, European editor
After some back and forth negotiations, T-Mobile Team and Taiwan bike colossus Giant announced this week that they are renewing their sponsorship relationship for a four year term, through the 2010 season. Giant's agreement with team sports management company High Road Sports Inc. The renewed accord was lauded by both Bob Stapleton of High Road Sports and Giant president Tony Lo for an agreement that will enable Giant and T-Mobile Team to have a long-term collaboration between Giant's product development staff and T-Mobile Team's world-class athletes to produce bicycle technologies that will eventually trickle-down to the retail showroom floor.
Bob Stapleton of High Road Sports, T-Mobile Teams new manager said, "We demand the best and most innovative bikes for our riders, and Giant's proprietary technologies and manufacturing capabilities have exceeded our expectations the past three years. With our shared commitment to success, it's exciting to embark on the next evolution of product development with Giant."
Tony Lo, Giant CEO, echoed Stapleton's remarks, saying, "Giant's spirit of innovation, technology leadership and passion for cycling lives on with our renewed long-term partnership with T-Mobile. Real world testing by world-class athletes is an important step in Giant's product development process, and our collaboration with the T-Mobile Team give us feedback straight from the peloton to our designers and engineers."
Giant cited its successful development of the new 2007 TCR Advanced Team as prime example of the collaboration and said that 2008 prototype design work for the next generation of Giants for T-Mobile Team has already commenced and team testing will begin in early 2007.
