Nicolas Vogondy puts another nail in Bbox coffin
The departure of Pierrick Fédrigo from Team Bbox Bouygues Telecom was a serious blow to the already-slim hopes that the team will find a financial backer for the 2011 season, and now Nicolas Vogondy has
announced that he would be leaving the team at the end of the season. With the sudden departure of two of the team’s top cyclists, Bbox is all-but-dead.
Vogondy is the current French national time-trial champion, who was riding for the team in the Vuelta a Espana until the end of stage 18, when he dropped out to fly to Australia to train for the World
Championships two weeks from now.
“I’m stopping the Vuelta tonight,” said Vogondy. “I’ve worked well for the time trial at the world championship. I’m ready.”
Like Fédrigo, Vogondy had intended to remain with the team if it found a new sponsor, but at this point waiting any longer was too much of a risk.
“This morning I have signed a two-year contract with Cofidis,” said Vogondy to Cyclingnews. “[Bbox manager] Jean-René [Bernabeau] told us that he would announce his new sponsor on August 15, then on September
1 and now it’s supposedly for September 20. I’ve called him to tell him that I couldn’t wait any longer. To have a contract for two years brings me serenity.”
Fédrigo left and took Steve Chainel and William Bonnet with him to Team FDJ, leaving Thomas Voeckler as the only top-performing cyclist remaining committed to Bbox.
“He can win races, it is very comfortable in difficult terrain,” said FDJ manager Marc Madiot. “He is a winner who doesn’t need many chances to win. He comes to play in the one-day races and wins stages
in stage races."
Both FDJ and Bbox, managed by Bernadeau, have applied for a ProTour license for the 2011 season, but Bbox can’t hope to match the sportsmanship requirement without their top cyclists, and without a sponsor
they can only expect more riders to depart.
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