Trek has officially announced that the Trek-Volkswagen team has come to an end, leaving a large group of top pro riders without a team for 2009 (and no time to find one).  The demise is largely due to Volkswagen’s non-renewal of their title sponsorship and Trek’s prior commitment to increasing its European presence in 2009.
Some of the riders interviewed by VeloNews seemed really caught off guard by the news, but my conversations with Jeremiah Bishop (pictured above winning the ’08 Iceman Cometh) over the past few months showed he knew something was up.  He, along with “Rad” Ross Schnell, will have partial sponsorships from Trek, and Chris Eatough has one year left on his contract.
Other big names affected include Sue Haywood, Travis Brown, Alison Syder and Roland Green. We’ve got some interview requests out there, we’ll keep you posted on what these riders are gonna do.
