Just like always, the Tour de France has brought with it it’s annual rumour mill on everything from riders to sponsors. In addition to Belkin pulling out of sponsorship, Jonathan Vaughters has announced that Garmin-Sharp will have new title sponsors, resulting in a name change for the team in 2015.

 Speaking at the end of stage 3 of the Tour, team manager Jonathan Vaughters, told Cyclingnews that, “Garmin has a contract with the team next year but not as a title sponsor. The team name will definitely change next year, yes.”

Garmin began their sponsorship in 2008 and they have seen the squad bearing their name become one of the best in the peloton, winning Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Paris-Roubaix, the Criterium du Dauphine and the Giro d’talia in the process.

Asked if Sharp (the other title sponsor of the team) would be the team’s lead sponsor next year Vaughters said “that remains to be seen. We have a financial situation where we have a lead partner but we’re not talking about it until the Tour de France is over.”

Asked if the team had a sponsor to sit alongside Sharp, Vaughters replied, “We aren’t going to discuss that until after the Tour de France.”

Vaughters also said that the team’s bike suppliers, Cervelo, don’t have a deal with the team so far beyond the end of this season.

“There’s no contract for Cervelo next year. There is one until the end of this year though," said Vaughters.

With bike brands becoming team owners and title sponsors in recent years the importance of bike brands has increased significantly. Several major brands want to supply bikes or sponsor a major WorldTour team to promote their products. Once, just supplying equipment and product was enough to secure a sponsorship deal. Now teams can demand at least 1.5million Euro for their bike sponsorship, highlighting how important it will be for Vaughters to secure a deal relatively soon so he can begin to plan his budget for next season.

French paper L’Equipe reported last week that Tinkoff-Saxo, who will split from Specialized at the end of this season, will ride Cannondale bikes, further drumming up rumours that the Cannondale squad, including targets Peter Sagan and Ivan Basso, will merge with the team owned by Russian oligarch Oleg Tinkov.

But Tinkov begs to differ, tweeting: "@Vaughters good deal with @cannondalePro. I am very much support it! #changecycling". The tweet was quickly deleted and Vaughters refuses to shed any more light on the situation.

"I don’t comment on sponsor stuff until it's done and finished, sorry. It's a no comment," he told Cyclingnews.

Christophe Dehaemers of Cannondale told Cyclingnews they were considering their options and are talking to several teams for 2015 but that they intend to remain in the WorldTour peloton.