Garmin-Chipolte accepted as Pro Tour

[RobtheAggie]

Garmin-Chipotle becomes ProTour team
The International Cycling Union (UCI) has announced the attribution of a ProTour license to American team Garmin-Chipotle Presented by H3O. The team directed by Jonathan Vaughters will thus participate in the calendar's events for the next four years.

The UCI also announced that three races were awarded ProTour status for that same period of time: the Vattenfall Cyclassics (Germany), the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré (France) and the Tour de Suisse (Switzerland). These races therefore join the 2009 UCI ProTour calendar alongside the Tour Down Under (Australia), the Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco (Spain), the Tour de Romandie (Switzerland), the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya (Spain), the Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian (Spain), the Tour de Pologne (Poland) and the GP Ouest France-Plouay (France). Other license requests are currently being studied by the Licenses Commission.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2008/oct08/oct09news2

Congrats to Vaughters. It will be interesting to see how this team upgrades it talent, and also how they do week to week on the Pro Tour.

[cleansheetbsc]

Congrats to Vaughters. It will be interesting to see how this team upgrades it talent, and also how they do week to week on the Pro Tour.

Turtleneck sweaters for everyone!

[Moishe]

Congrats on the recognition/acceptance of sorts. Sadly the prestige of an UCI PTL has lost much of it's luster over the last couple of years. With it's inability to get doping under control, having the Grand Tours and some of the more storied Spring Classics withdrawing from the Pro Tour it just seems like the Pro Tours days are winding down. They still have some nice races but w/o the money of the TDF/Giro/Vuelta it suffers.

As far as Garmin is concerned, they are already a solid team with better than average leader in VdV so a few pieces here and there they'll have a crack at a podium finish in Paris.

Oh and I agree, turtlenecks all the way around.

[RobtheAggie]

Add Sven Tuft to the mix, and they are stronger still.