We remember what we were doing when we first heard the news -- we were at work watching the Mt. Ventoux stage of the '08 Paris-Nice on cycling.tv, pretending we were answering emails and otherwise being productive. Team CSC monster rouleur Jens Voigt was off the front at the base of Ventoux, counting down the k's 'til he'd get caught. Jens' lead had gone from 6 minutes to less than 3 in the blink of an eye, and from nowhere the announcer let us know that CSC (the company) had just announced that 2008 would be their final year of cycling sponsorship. After 8 years of unbelievable success, they'd had enough.

In that instant we felt unbearable sadness for our sport. We love it so very, very much. Who couldn't recognize the fact that the most prominent teams involved in the sport were each in their own final stages of heart failure? CSC was suddenly sponsorless. High Road was surviving on a T-Mobile trust fund, but it was without hot prospects for a sponsor once T-Mobile's sponsorship breakup fee residuals ran out. Astana was living testimony to the fact that not even The Almighty Lance Armstrong could summon sufficient sales je ne sais quoi to score a title sponsor. And, hell, rather than romancing a seemingly legit Russian oligarch to pony up the money a la Roman Abramovich, Johan Bruyneel instead had to sell his soul Dorian Gray-like by getting into cahoots with the Slim Shady Kazahks behind Astana. And, lest we forget, the golden children of Team Slipstream are funded by little more than the generosity of Doug Ellis. It's nothing other than a handout from a mega-rich New Yorker. Amusingly, he's more concerned with personal privacy than sponsorship exposure. The senselessness of the Slipstream construct suggests to us an underlying fragility to it.

Four awesome bike racing armies. Four organizations seemingly incapable of summoning up real sponsorship dollars. What will be, we wonder, the true Market Price of title sponsorship of a first-rate pro team in 2009? It used to be $10mm/year. When will it be $1mm/year? Doping scandals don't worry us from the perspective of morality. But from the perspective of the financial viability of our glorious sport, it worries us deeply.

This Craft Team CSC short sleeve jersey has immense symbolic meaning to us. It signifies the end of an era. For a delightful decade or so our sport was capable of selling its marketing value to heavy-hitting multi-national corporations. With CSC's exit, we worry that that era is over. The market appears to have peaked. Now we're on a fast track to where we were in the mid-90's: Companies of middling significance with CEO's mad for cycling or mad with ego might still pony up some dough of consequence. But the $10mm/year sponsor? We fear those days are over.

This jersey is heavy with history. 2008 will prove to be the last year of the way it once was, and we'll wear it proudly thanks to the memories. Bartoli, Tafi, Sciandri, Cancellara, O'Grady, Schleck -- the names we associate with CSC glory are superstars and sentimental favorites. Wearing this jersey is like raising a toast to them.

The jersey features a full-zipper front, along with three rear pockets and a small 4th zippered pocket. It's made from Craft's Pro Sense material -- a thin, elastic polyester made first and foremost to pull moisture from your skin to the outer surface of the jersey. If you're a sweater, the gridded construction of Pro Sense is ideal for you. The wicking is superb. The collar and shoulders a pre-shaped to fit best when you're reaching for the handlebars. It's made with a race cut -- meaning it will fit snug, the way pros like it. Sizes S-XXL