The Former Professional road and racing cyclist Floyd Landis is returning to the world of cycling, and this time he is not alone but joined by the 2-time Olympian David “Tinker” Juarez. Landis’s CBD-product company Floyd’s of Leadville will actually be sponsoring a mountain bike and gravel bike racing team and Tinker Juarez will be at the lead.
Floyd Landis is a professional racing cyclist that rose to famous gracefully, during his amazing tenure he spent almost three years with the U.S. Postal Service, from the start of 2002 to the end of 2004. Apart from this, he also won the 2006 Tour De France and would have been the third Non-European winner in Tour De France’s history but was disqualified for using performance-enhancing drugs.
This is not Floyd’s first time sponsoring a racing team though, just after founding the Floyd’s of Leadville, he sponsored a pro continental cycling team in 2019, and how he is back again. Although this time, he is trying something new as mountain bike and gravel racing.
When we asked Floyd, what is the main market strategy for his company, this is what he had to say, “As far as a marketing strategy for the company, the gravel and the mountain bike events have a much better atmosphere where you interact with people. Professional road racing is … an event, and you have the pros there, and you have people watching, but you don’t have the sort of community of people that are all participating,”
David “Tinker” Juarez is a seven-time national champion and two-time Olympian, he is also a member of the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame which is quite an honor. He started BMX racing from a very young age when he was 13, and then at the age of 25 he formally and professionally transitioned to cross country and endurance mountain biking. Afterward, he shifted his attention to ultra-endurance road racing at the age of 44. Even at this age, he is highly competitive, he managed to win 2021’s UCI Mountain Bike Masters World Championship, that too in his age category.
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Cannondale is such a big name in the bike industry, Jaurez was sponsored by Cannondale for almost 27 years although that expired in the October of last year. Just by that, Floyd rushed to the opportunity and offered sponsorship to Tinker Juarez.
“I’ve known Tinker for a long time,” Landis said. “He represents something that the sport should aspire to represent, right? He cares about it, he’s a positive guy, he talks to people, he’s great with the fans—there’s no one better … he’s a real inspiration.” Both Juarez and Floyd are excited about getting into mountain bike and gravel racing.
Even after all the races and championships, Juarez has absolutely no intentions of retiring anytime soon. “There are people that always say, ‘I’m 40 and I just started riding, and I’m just glad I could look up to you,” Juarez said. “Being in the sport for as long as I have, is there really a deadline? We all want to stay healthy, and we all want to do something that’s fun … it was always a dream of mine to make it a living, you know, so now I’m still doing it.”
Juarez’s main focus will still be mountain bike races, although with the start of the upcoming season he will also shift his attention to gravel racing.
Tinker Juarez is part of a highly competitive team, he is joined by Taylor Lideen, who is the winner of the 2021 Unbound XL Gravel Race. Then there is Geneviève Jeanson, a Canadian former pro-road cyclist that ender her career after being suspended because of doping. Victor Cashes a young and ambitious mountain bike racer and Anne Donley is also part of the team. This highly ambitious team is being led by endurance athlete Paul Thomas, who will also be racing in some selected events.
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Apart from Thomas, Landis will also be racing this upcoming season, he also seems to be quite excited about his return to the world of cycling.
“I got overweight and quit riding for the longest time,” Landis said. “So it’s good for me, it gives me something to train for. And I like the atmosphere there. I like talking to people at these events—it’s a really great crowd.”
Featured Image via Instagram/tinker.juarez