In previous Tours de France, Heras had been the mountain lynchpin of Armstrong's Tour de France successes, helping coaxthe American upthe toughest climbs.
The network did manage to coax 59 percent of former Nextel customers to stay tied up with Big Yellow, which may account for it selling nearly 1.2 million Direct Connect devices.
Typically, retailers spend the weeks leading up to Black Friday and the official kick-off of the holiday shopping season plotting on how to coax shoppers inside their stores.