The former Rabobank team, racing this year in the guise of Blanco after their long-term sponsor ended its association with the team, has found a new title sponsor. California-based technology company Belkin has signed a sponsorship deal valid until the end of 2015, the team announced yesterday.

The first race under the new name will be this year’s Tour de France, guaranteeing maximum exposure for the new sponsor. Belkin’s founder and CEO Chet Pipkin explains his reasons for going into cycling sponsorship: “Cycling relies on innovation to drive success and has a passionate, tech savvy fan base that follows the sport closely, which aligns really well with the Belkin brand. Associating our Belkin and Linksys brands with this successful, well-established pro cycling team enables us to introduce ourselves to millions of people around the world and interact with them.”

Belkin Pro Cycling general manager Richard Plugge was satisfied: “With 19 victories this year and a new title sponsor, 2013 is shaping up to be a dream season for our team,” he said. “As a company, Belkin shares our values and global ambitions, so we are very excited to have them on board as our sponsor. We look forward to two and a half years of shared successes.”

“We have had a very hectic period behind us, but in Belkin we have found a tremendous new sponsor,” Plugge continued. “Right from the first contact, the discussions went very well. We have shared values: we want to win as a team but we attach a lot of importance to the manner in which we win. I also want to thank Rabobank: they provided for the continuity and gave us the opportunity to find a new sponsor. Now we are really underway.”

The team’s designated leader for the Tour de France, Bauke Mollema, says he was confident that the sponsor situation would sort itself out: “I’ve believed from day one the management would be able to find a new sponsor despite the challenging economic period we face. Therefore, my focus was on training and racing. If we did not have sponsor before the Tour began, that might have been cause for concern; but thankfully that is not the case. I am very pleased that we can know continue to grow and become even more successful.”

The entire team is re-branded with the new team colours black, white and green, and the new kit will be used for the first time on Saturday in the opening stage of the Tour. You can see the new jersey in the video below.