Garmin has announced it will continue its title sponsorship of the ProTour cycling team, Team Garmin-Slipstream, for an additional three years.
“The success of the team spans the globe and surpassed our expectations for the first year and a half of our title sponsorship, bringing Garmin’s reputation for quality, commitment, performance and productivity into countless households in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia,” says Jon Cassat, Garmin’s vice president of communications.
“Our objectives were – and continue to be – to integrate our products on sports’ biggest stages and to build global brand awareness. Whether capturing victories around the world, winning national championships or working to develop future generations of talent, Team Garmin has helped us achieve those objectives and has made an impression on billions of potential customers.”
The partnership, which will run until the end of 2013, will see Garmin, Slipstream and their partners developing new technology that will give the team advantages on the road.
“Since signing with Slipstream prior to the 2008 Tour de France, Garmin has seen an outpouring of support from cyclists and sports fans across the globe, along the roads of major tours and in the stores of our retail partners,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin’s vice president of worldwide sales. “Whilst providing feedback on product development, the team has shown fans everywhere that the best-in-class Edge 705 cycling GPS can stand up to the sport’s steepest challenges, while suiting the needs of cyclists of any calibre.”
Garmin has spent 20 years developing GPS technology and has already used the team’s unique perspective and invaluable feedback in developing the new GPS-enabled Edge 500 (expected availability Winter 2009), which tracks speed, distance, time, GPS position, elevation, calories burned, climb and descent.
After the ride, data downloaded to Garmin Connect allows cyclists and staff to study the statistics, looking for any room for improvement for the next day. This data also provides fans and the media access to the riders’ data.
