Thursday 21 August 2014 15:07, UK
Cannondale will join forces with Slipstream Sports next season and replace Garmin as title sponsor of their UCI WorldTour team.
The US bicycle manufacturer has been running a team as a co-sponsor or full sponsor since 2010, enjoying success at the Grand Tours with Slovak star Peter Sagan.
Garmin's deal with Slipstream expires at the end of this season but they will maintain a relationship with the new team.
"Technically it's not a merger," Vaughters said. "It's still Slipstream Sports, LLC, as the owner and management of the team. Cannondale becomes a large shareholder. Slipstream chairman Doug Ellis remains the primary shareholder.
"Cannondale is an American team and their market is the American market. They are a company that wanted to stay in a leadership position and Slipstream Sports offered them the right path for that to happen."
Eight riders - Moreno Moser, Elia Viviani, Alan Marangoni, Kristijan Koren, Davide Villella, Davide Formolo, Alberto Bettiol and Matej Mohoric - currently under contract to Cannondale will be offered contracts under the terms they already had in place, and will have until the UCI's WorldTour registration date of October 15 to decide.
Fourteen further riders have contracts with Slipstream for next year, and those contracts will also be honoured, Slipstream chief executive Jonathan Vaughters said.
Sagan, though, will not be part of the new rider line-up as he has already agreed to join Tinkoff-Saxo on a three-year deal from next season.
Vaughters added: "We will be adding some great talent to an already outstanding roster and we believe the team will build on past success and will produce very exciting racing in 2015."
