David Millar took part in a press conference to talk about the arrival of Garmin as the new sponsors of the Slipstream team on Monday, revealing his excitement about the deal.
The Slipstream team will be known as Team Garmin-Chipotle from now on, with the leading GPS Sat-Nav maker taking over from Slipstream on the famous orange and blue argyle jersey.
No details of the value of the sponsorship were revealed but Garmin confirmed that the deal is set to last several years and the riders on the team will work closely with Garmin engineers to use the GPS technology for cycling.
?This is all pretty cool at the moment,? Millar said revealing his emotions of finally announcing a major sponsor for the team he part owns.
?I got to use the Garmin 705 during the Giro and it was pretty new experience for me. When people ask me what information I want to be told during time trials, I?ve always said just give me as much info as possible. As pro cyclists we?re reliant on knowing what?s going on, on the weather, on gradients of climbs, how?s our body running at in terms of power or heart rate. The Garmin gives us all these numbers and visually under our nose. We?ve never had this much info before and for the first time we?re getting it in all one unit. It?s as if we?re going from the dark ages to 21st century in one leap.?
?We?ve always based the team on cutting edge technology by hard work and by doing research this will give us another advantage we want to exploit to the maximum. I think it?s going to pretty exciting in the next few months.?
MILLAR TARGETS YELLOW JERSEY
The newly named Team Garmin-Chipotle will officially unveil the new team clothing on July 3 just before the start of the Tour de France.
Millar is currently training at altitude in the Pyrenees and revealed he will be riding to win stages and perhaps wear the yellow jersey sometime in the first part of the race.
?We really want to go to the Tour de France and race with panache and be protagonists,? he said.
?On a personal level I?d like to try and win a stage. The format of the race this year also makes it possible to get the yellow jersey in the first week if things go my way.?
?All the Team Garmin riders want to leave a mark on race and be up there be seen. think we can all up there and have fun. I want people to see were enjoying it and having fun.?
Garmin confirmed that the Slipstream?s strong stance against doping and their internal testing programme was a key part in their decision to sponsor the team. Garmin vice president of communications Jon Cassat revealed that they had thoroughly ?checked out? the team and liked what they discovered.
TOUR DE FRANCE TEAM TO BE NAMED NEXT TUESDAY
Team manager Jonathan Vaughters was rightly proud to be able to announce the arrival of Garmin. He said the team will focus the biggest races on the calendar, both in the USA and Europe and continue to have an international, multi-faceted line-up.
Vaughters said that he would reveal the names of the nine-riders that would wear the new Garmin jersey for the Tour de France on June 24. He revealed that David Zabriskie will not ride after fracturing a vertebrae in the Giro d?Italia but said the American will instead target the time trial at the Olympics and at the world championships.
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