Glitzy fundraiser included auctioning Bauer’s Tour de France yellow jersey and video messages from Armstrong & Liggett

(Toronto, Ontario): Perhaps the only thing missing from last week’s (January 28) SpiderTech team presentation and Steve Bauer tribute was a red carpet. Otherwise, the glitzy event held at Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum could easily have passed for a Hollywood movie premiere. Approximately 150 affluent and powerful movers and shakers from Toronto and Montreal gathered to launch the country’s only UCI continental cycling team at a press conference, cocktail party, fundraising dinner and salute hosted by SpiderTech founder Ray Arbesman, along with wife Karen.

Starting with a press conference, Bauer, one of North America’s greatest cyclists and Canada’s acknowledged best who now directs and manages Team SpiderTech presented by Planet Energy for his Cycle Sport Management, audaciously disclosed the team’s lofty goals: to become the nation’s first ProTour team, to compete in the Tour de France, and to place a Canadian on the final podium at Le Tour. In 1988, Bauer won the opening stage of the Tour de France and wore the race leader’s yellow jersey in 1988 for five days before finishing a step from the podium in 4th place. Two years later, he led the Tour for nine days. A video montage of the team’s highlights from last season was screened, which spotlighted the dazzling sprint victory by Martin Gilbert in the final stage of the Tour of Missouri against some of the swiftest sprinters and professional teams in the sport. The fifteen athletes, featuring thirteen Canadians, were introduced to the media in their new white and green Team SpiderTech team kits.

It was Arbesman’s idea to turn the team presentation into a fundraising dinner and a salute to Bauer. During the tribute, video messages from Bauer’s former teammate Lance Armstrong and the voice of cycling Phil Liggett were played. The highlight reel from Bauer’s stellar career included Tour de France footage, an attacking Bauer riding to win the silver medal in the Los Angeles Olympic Games road race (1984), and a heartbreaking 2nd place finish at the 1990 Paris-Roubaix, which he lost at the line by one-thousandth of a second. Bauer somewhat bashfully took the microphone to thank those who supported him during his career, but humbly refocused the attention on the Team SpiderTech riders now charged with carrying the mantle for an entire country. Amongst the big ticket items auctioned to support the squad, the final yellow jersey Bauer wore during the 1990 Tour de France sold for a winning bid of $23,500.

During the press conference, SpiderTech vice president of marketing Bill Payne enthusiastically confirmed the company’s support of the team and stressed that Bauer is the perfect person to lead the ambitious effort for the nation. At dinner, SpiderTech president Michael Greenberg said, “I had never been to a bike race prior to seeing the team compete in Philadelphia last June. When we saw the heart, raw guts and determination with which they rode, we fell in love. We’re a young company supporting a young team. We are proud to rise from sponsor to title sponsor this year. And although we’re expecting to see a lot of SpiderTech product in the peloton of every race this year, Team SpiderTech is our team.”