MADISON, WI (BRAIN)—Pacific Cycle and Saris Cycling Group are issuing a challenge to Industry Cup crit racers: Put your money where your mouth is.
Saris, using its CycleOps brand and Pacific Cycle, using its Schwinn brand, have created a co-branded team of riders that will “undoubtedly blow the doors off the rest of the field and leave competitors crying in the streets,” according to an unnamed expert. The team’s name: SchwycleOps. Their mission: Ass whupping.
The riders from Pacific Cycle/Schwinn are: Stephen “WMD” Balsley and Chuck “Stop Looking at My Ass” McFarland. The riders from the Saris camp are Robb “Taillights” Zbierski and Jesse “Say My Name” Bartholomew.
Jeff Frehner, president and chief executive officer of Pacific Cycle, and Chris Fortune, chief executive officer of Saris Cycling Group, have ponied up a challenge purse of $2,500 to be donated to Bikes Belong in the company names of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd-place finishers. $1,500 will be donated under the 1st-place finisher’s company name; $750 under the 2nd-place finisher’s company name; and $250 under the 3rd-place finisher’s company name. Frehner and Fortune are also providing a prime prize, an award-winning 2.4 Wireless PowerTap from CycleOps Power.
“We are truly excited to have industry heavy hitters such as Pacific and Saris Cycling Group step up their involvement in the Industry Cup event and support cycling at the front of the class,” said Ravi Rajcoomar, managing partner of Swagger, the country’s leading producer of criterium racing and organizer of the Vegas crits. “I wonder if there are any other industry players willing to put their money where their mouths are...because talk is cheap!”
Though little is known about SchwycleOps, lore of the team’s epic training rides has spread. Tales of team SchwycleOps team doing 800+ mile lunch rides have become legend. The team’s virility and stamina is coveted, feared and studied–can it be bottled somehow? Are these men indeed mere mortals? The Industry Cup will decide.
“This is how dreams are realized...how legacies are born,” Frehner said. “Come see history in the making as SchwycleOps makes the competition look like chumps!”
“If you want to come out to see old men try to recapture their youth and glory, now is the time!” Fortune said.
Think your team has what it takes to defeat SchwycleOps? Bring it on. If you can’t swing it, don’t bring it. Industry Cup. Interbike 2007. Thursday, September 27. 8 p.m. Mandalay Bay.
