z wrote:
Ryan Cousineau wrote:
In article
,
" wrote:

Just how big is Cervelo bike company...? It's hard to imagine a
smaller bike company having enough money to sponsor a team. After all
we are talking at least $10 million a year for a pro team.

I can't say for sure how big, but not only do they do reasonably well
in roadie circles, they're a huge force in the triathlete market. How
big?

http://triathlon.competitor.com/2009...-2009-kona-bik
e-count-presented-by-triathlete-magazine_5170

Every year there's a fun bit of gear voyeurism called the "Ironman
Bike Count". Triathlete Magazine looks at the bike and equipment
brands used.

Top five bikes in the count this year:

Bike Count (last year¹s totals in parentheses)
Cervelo * 462 (415)
Scott * 109 (103)
Specialized * 93 (66)
Felt * 92 (89)
Trek * 90 (103)

There's 1800 entrants, so about a quarter of all bikes at Ironman are
Cervelos.

If you assume the average wholesale value of a Cervelo is around
$1000, Then that's maybe a half a million dollars worth of Cervelos
being sent to Hawaii each year.
What I can't really say is how big the tri-training market is, and to
what extent Cervelo plays in that more price-sensitive territory.

Cervelo also isn't the only sponsor of Test Team, just the title
sponsor. Nonetheless, they must have a lot of skin in the game.

Also, $10M to run a pro team? Really? I count Sastre and Hushovd as
the big names on Cervelo:

http://www.cervelo.com/riders.aspx

Is their total wage bill likely to be $3M?


Also, their partners appear to be all of cycling related products, so
likely to be mainly in-kind support and probably a small amount of cash.

26 men riders, 14 women riders, 7 mechanics/drivers, five soigneurs,
three doctors, four DS, and four team management. Mechanics, soigneurs,
and doctors are probably hired on on an as needed basis.

That's a lot of paychecks.

Cervelo are probably seeding the team for several years with the hopes
of picking up a title sponsor soon to carry it long term.