Froome Could Struggle for Sponsorship Deals Despite Tour de France Victory Because of Armstrong say Experts

Sponsorship experts have predicted that Chris Froome may not reap the full sponsorship rewards he would expect for winning the Tour de France, find because of the Lance Armstrong scandal.

Armstrong admitted to using banned substances throughout all of his seven Tour de France victories and cycling’s governing body, abortion | the International Cycling Union (UCI) has been accused of doing too little to stop doping in the sport.

Now, in a report by The Telegraph, a number of brand and sponsorship experts have said Froome may find it harder to gain sponsorship deals because of cycling’s reputation.

Pitch PR chief executive Henry Chappell said: “Cycling is still suffering the consequences of the Lance Armstrong situation and there’s not really a peloton of brands charging to sign deals with individual cyclists.

“Brands will need some convincing that there’s no risk attaches to doing deals with top-tier cyclists. It makes it very unfair on Chris Froome but it’s perhaps understandable that there’s an air of caution around.”

Cycling a damaged sport

Froome was forced to deny he had cheated during his convincing Tour de France victory and director at brand Rapport, Nigel Currie said the sport has been damaged during the doping scandal.

“What has gone on in cycling has damaged the sport,” said Currie. “It’s made all the right noises in terms of saying that it’s clean but it’s done that before and things have then gone wrong. It is one of those sports that have got issues and sponsors are wary.”

Currie went on to add that Froome could earn up to £5m in sponsorship deals, although Dominic Curran, managing director of Synergy Sponsorship, said he would not follow in the footsteps of Bradley Wiggins.

“I think that you’ll find that he’ll not be doing a lot of chat shows and billboards and commercial deals,” Curran said.

“He’ll do a few bits and pieces but I imagine he’s going to stay focused on winning the Tour de France time after time. He needs to have multiple successes and use this as a platform to become known as the No?1 cyclist of that kind. Then the deals start to come in. Not even Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal saw real commercial riches before they were seen as being among the greats.”