Euskaltel will live on!

Great news in recent days: a new sponsor has stepped up to take over the Carrots, Euskaltel Euskadi, who were about to fold at the end of this season.

The new sponsor is Ferdinand Alonso, former F1 driver, who is apparently very chummy with both Contador and Sammie "Crinkled Forehead" Sanchez: the report says that he's a  big cycling fan, and has wanted to get involved with sponsoring a team for some years now.

Needless to say, I'm really happy to hear this, but I do have some reservations - is he going to be another stupid "rich man" sponsor, who will lose interest if his team fail to win, win, win? (Becca) Does he fully appreciate that he may have bought Euskaltel, but they will still do what they have always done, ie fall off their bikes, knock other riders off their bikes, whizz up hills from time to time, get in breaks, occasionally win a stage, and virtually never win a big race.

If he's ok with that, then we're ok.

If he expects them to suddenly turn around and start winning, he is in for a disappointment (no offence to Euskaltel, or Midge, *waves across the channel*, or any other Carrot fans!), and I really don't want to see yet another rich man dabbling  his fingers in the sport, then dumping it when things don't go quite as he wanted.

We won't know about that until part way through next season, but there are some more immediate questions that need to be asked:

1)  Kit. Will he keep the orange?
2) Name. Will they still be Euskaltel something?
3) Team cars: will they be Ferraris?

Regarding kit, we all hope he keeps the iconic orange, but we have to accept that if he is buying the team - for 6 million euros, it's said - then he does have the right to change it. He comes from a small region of Spain (thanks, Midge, for that info!) whose national flag is a nice shade of blue, with a gold cross on it. I hereby prophesy that if he changes the kit, it will be black shorts, blue jerseys, and gold/yellow stripes, rather like the old Blanco kit.

Regarding name: as above. During la Vuelta, our commentators said that Euskaltel might well stay on as sponsors, now that a big injection of someone else's cash has come along, so there is a real chance that the word Euskaltel will continue to appear in their team name. I do hope so!

And as for team cars, well, don't be silly: Ferrari simply don't make an estate car with a roof rack, and in fact they probably don't even make a car whose speedometer can register 5mph. And frankly, none of their clutches could stand the constant slipping!