Well, the unlovely Mr Becca has made his feelings quite plain today, in an act of sheer spite - he's pulled the plug on all non-essential racing for the rest of this season.
He has said that he won't fund any races other than the UCI World Tour races, the ones that all pro-teams are compelled to attend.
So our Leopards (and the RadioShambles bunch) will continue at la Vuelta, and will do the five remaining races, but won't do Paris-Tours, Paris-Brussels, or the Tour of Britain - although to be fair, we already knew they weren't coming to Britain as the organisers released the start list, and they weren't on it...
..shame...
...but there you are, we can't expect them to come all the way to the UK every year. Maybe Trek will come next year?
In the meantime, the end of this season is going to be somewhat difficult for the team, if not all of them are going to be allowed to ride races, as they need the race miles to work up their form for the Worlds.
Talking of which, I have never quite figured out who pays for what when riders compete at the Worlds - suddenly they are no longer riding for their team, but for their country, leading to some unexpected alliances, some strange kit, and the feeling that they are neglecting their pro teams.
Other Trek news includes this report confirming a few more riders going to the new team, which now contains:
Andy
Frankie
Fabu
...and
Stijn Devolder
Markel Irizar
Yaroslav Popovych
Gregory Rast
Hayden Roulston and
Jesse Sergent
Hey, Trek, don't forget Puncture Pim!
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