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Team Blanco’s search for a sponsor continues with the team’s manager confirming to Cyclingnews that neꦛgotiations are ongoing with a number of international and Dutch parties.

Richard Plugge, who took over the position of team director, last December, told Cyclingnews that, “the process is still ongoing but we’re waiting for signatures. It can take two months but the process is still ongoing. There areꦬ still a handful of parties we’re talking to, bo𝓰th international and Dutch.”

“I’m confide𒉰nt, but we don’t have a 🎀signature yet. In the end it could be a no from all parties so we have to wait. I can’t predict anything at the moment.”

“My job is to save the team and that&r🙈squo;s what I’m working on. The earlier the better but if it’s later that’s fine too.&rdqܫuo;

The team is currently bankrolled by money reserved by their previous🙈 sponsor, the Dutch bank Rabobank.

They 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:pulled out of sponsorship at the end of the 2012 season, ending their 17-year association with the team in dramatic fashion after damaging headlines surfaced from both the USADA investigation into Lance Armstrong and US Postal, and the doping practices carried o💞ut at the Dutch squad before 2008.

Only a handful of riders w🅠ho rode for the team between 1996 and 2008 have confessed, with Michael Rasmussen and Michael Boogerd the two highest in profile.

The steady stream of doping confessions, coupled with the tough economic situation in Europe, has left Plugg൩e with a difficult task in replacing Rabobank’s funds but he believes that despite the recent doping headlines at home, “abroad it’s less of a p🅷roblem than it is in Holland.”

The team has confirmed to Cyclingnews that a number of riders have existing contracts through until the end of 2014 and that these will be honoured regardless of whether a sponsor can be found. Cyclingnews understands that these ri🦂ders include Robert Gesink, Sep Vanmarcke, Luis Leon Sanchez and Bauke Mollema.

A situation could th♐erefore play out in which the contracted riders are paid their 2014 salaries and then given an additional contract from a new team i꧟f Blanco fails to find a new backer.

The bigger picture is much bleaker though. Blanco is not alone in its struggles to find funds for next year. Vacansoleil is on the fence with reg🧸ards to its ongoing sponsorship of the team, and has set an April deadline before announcing its plans.

Their WorldTour manager, Dan Luijkx, as talked positively about finding a backer for next year, telling Cyclingnews, “We are busy with the investigation and we'll wait for all the results and then we'll make a statement. I don't know how long it will take, but it could take we♕eks.”

Unlike Blanco’s management Luijkx at least has experience in a🐬ttracting sponsors to the team. Rabobank’s structure and mentality meant that finances flowed freely, leading to a situation where average domestiques were - and still are – heavily overpaid.

It’s therefore conceivable that Holland could be left with just one WorldTour team in 2014, and Argos-Shimano, who has a far more sel🌳ective and scrupulous hand in the transfer market, is unlikely to change its philosophy and hire more thaಞn a handful of riders.