Team Astana Trek Bikes? Will They Sell?

When Tailwind Sports disbanded earlier this year, it left Trek bikes totally unrepresented in the three Grand Tours for next year. Trek has really branded itself as the American bike for the American team, but now comes news that Trek is staying loyal to Johan Bruyneel, and becoming the official bike for Team Astana, the Kazakh team. I guess this is good news for Levi Leipheimer, but he really needs to win a Grand Tour for his Astana version bike to sell well here in the States. I have a feeling that by 2009, Trek will go the route of Cannondale, and choose to be the official bike supplier for several teams. The one team, one bike concept, with all the close development work, really helped sell the bikes when it was Lance Armstrong riding the product. But with no purely American team racing internationally (Slipstream needs a few years to go to build a solid reputation for European cycling), Trek will have to change its marketing strategies.