SCOTT Sports has joined forces with the new UCI approved professional cycling team IAM Cycling for the 2013/2014 season. The Swiss team will be based in the city of Geneva, Switzerland, close to the SCOTT Sports’ European headquarters. This proximity will give the team and SCOTT Sports the opportunity to work closely on product development, marketing initiatives and towards the ultimate goal of joining the WorldTour.
“We are more than excited to work with IAM Cycling,” said SCOTT Sports Vice President Pascal Ducrot. “We believe in fostering young talent and working closely with our teams on product development. With ORICA-GreenEDGE and this new Swiss team riding for us, we are able to achieve these goals and push ourselves further than ever before.”
According to Michel Thetaz, IAM Cycling General Manager, “[With] ambitions and the recruiting quality combined, the team had no other choice than to associate itself with a first rank equipment brand. This choice has imposed itself naturally in consideration of SCOTT’s know-how in this specific field and in term of its reputation.”
SCOTT Sports will act as the official bike sponsor and will equip the team with its top of the line racing machines. The SCOTT Foil will be the primary bike used for mass start races, while the Plasma 3 will be the time trial bike. According to SCOTT Sports Vice President Pascal Ducrot, it is the frame design and construction that sets the SCOTT Foil race bike apart from competing bikes.
“On the bike, the elements are always against you with the wind trying to slow you or a climb trying to break you,” said Ducrot.
“For many years, time trial bikes, such as the as Plasma 3, have reaped the benefits of aerodynamics to beat the wind and now our SCOTT Foil maximises the use of that technology on a road bike to get an advantage against the elements and the competition. Our aero science engineers have gone to great lengths to get the aerodynamics of the Foil perfect.”
IAM Cycling will also be using prototype bikes as SCOTT unveils new technology for the racing world in the coming years.
“We want to keep this team well aligned with our future projects since their geographical proximity will allow us to get instant feedback,” added Ducrot.
IAM Cycling is a new (and the only) professional Swiss cycling team registered at the Pro-Continental level for the 2013 season. The team has been created and is sponsored by Geneva’s asset management company IAM Independent Asset Management in order to promote its seven investment funds.
