Team Slipstream/Chipotle, Boulder’s first-year entry in the Tour de France, will enter as Team Garmin-Chipotle as presented by H30 after Garmin International Inc., stepped up with a major sponsorship Wednesday.
The new sponsorship with the satellite navigation giant runs through 2010 and jumps the team budget to $11 million.
More important, the team said, Garmin will provide the cyclists with the latest in navigation mechanics. Each cyclist will have an Edge 705, a bicycle computer that will provide location, heart rate, cadence and turn-by-turn navigation, among other data.
The team car will be equipped with a Nuvi 770, which Garmin spokesman Jon Cassat said will be “the best GPS technology on tour.”
Team director Jonathan Vaughters said: “As a team, we have always pushed technology as far as we possibly could. Partnering up with Garmin, it’s in the same vein.
“It’s in the DNA of our team. We’re always looking for a technological advantage.”
Organizers of this year’s Tour de France are debating whether to allow race radios, but “with Garmin units on our bikes, our riders will already have 85-90 percent of the information they need,” Vaughters said.
Team Garmin will unveil its new uniform, which will keep its trademark argyle design, on July 3, two days before the three-week Tour de France begins in the Brittany town of Brest.
The team has already made international news with its weekly drug testing.
The cyclists hope the new technology will help them make news on the roads in France.
“I always said to directors when they ask, especially before time trials: ‘Well, what do you want us to say? Do you want us to cheer you on? Do you want us to give you time checks?’ ” cyclist David Millar said.
“I’ve always said, ‘Just give me as much information as you can.’ As pro cyclists, one thing we rely on is what’s going on: What the weather is. What the gradients are. What distance we’ve done. What the time is. What our bodies are running at.
“What Garmin does is it gives us all these numbers, visually, right at our nose. And that’s something we’ve never had before.”
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com
