Yahoo! Hopes to Revive Cycling... or Vice Versa

Amid its own struggles, Yahoo! has taken to cycling in an effort to boost morale and recruiting efforts with high tech professionals.

Cyclingnews.com reports that an online survey of Silicon Valley Professionals recently revealed that 50 percent of respondents are cycling enthusiasts. The results were then presented to the Yahoo! Management and prompted it to launch a new competitive cycling team: Yahoo! Cycling Team.

"The whole idea behind the Yahoo! Cycling Team is the recruitment of high tech professionals in the Silicon Valley and to provide a platform for partners to achieve more involvement at the community level," team manager, Kevin Klein told Cyclingnews.com. "If you do it right, everyone should win and grow their business."

Social media will of course be an important activation component, Cyclingnews.com writes:

Social media will be used as a key marketing strategy behind the team - this includes the popular Twitter (Yahoocycling) and Facebook as well as their official website, www.yahoocycling.com, which is set to launch early next year. Local promotional contests will be held on-line throughout the year to keep cycling fans returning to the website.

If popular tech blog, TechCrunch, is any indication, Y!, which earlier this year announced plans to outsource search to Microsoft, might be in for a tough sell.

TechCrunch's MG Siegler writes "what I most want to know is, if the team fails to deliver four races in, will Yahoo outsource the sponsorship to Facebook or Bing?"