Another British Team Bites the Dust

[MartinGT]

So OnePro has come out of the men's scene to concentrate on a Women's team. But yesterday when I read JLT Condor were finishing at the end of the season I was shocked.

Is this a sign of Brexit in securing sponsorship or what? Sad to see JLT leaving. Some great rides and riders over the seasons.

 

[del1962]

Does this means the Tour series will be down to 6 mens teams?

 

[samhocking]

Either run with the 6 or allow 2 additional amateur teams to join like Morvelo Basso I would think is more likely!

 

[jarvo]

https://www.ft.com/content/f8dc952e-bb0c-11e8-8274-55b72926558f

Would JLT being bought by another company have anything to do with securing the sponsorship?

 

[postmanhat]

Re:

Does this means the Tour series will be down to 6 mens teams?

Won't there only be four conti teams next year at this rate (Madison, Vitus, Canyon and Wiggins?). Arguably, the best ever year for Britain's men at the top level, but the domestic scene seems to be dying?

Conversely, women's cycling in the UK continues to grow and will probably overtake the men in terms of UCI registered teams next year. If I were being cynical, is it because it's cheaper to run a female team?

 

[samhocking]

Madison, Vitus, Canyon and Wiggins on the UCI side, but you've also got Holdsworth & Morvelo on the domestic side.

 

[samhocking]

Happening across all of cycling regardless of Country really. Just take Italian Cycling. Not a single Italian-registered and owned World Tour team anymore since Lampre. Partly economy, mostly cycling's economic model is rather out of date and broken though. It scrapes by in the good and stable global economy times, but is the first aspect of the economy to fall off a cliff when not.

 

[del1962]

Re: Re:

Does this means the Tour series will be down to 6 mens teams?

Won't there only be four conti teams next year at this rate (Madison, Vitus, Canyon and Wiggins?). Arguably, the best ever year for Britain's men at the top level, but the domestic scene seems to be dying?

Conversely, women's cycling in the UK continues to grow and will probably overtake the men in terms of UCI registered teams next year. If I were being cynical, is it because it's cheaper to run a female team?

Yes and at that level in the UK you get much closer media exposure to mens teams than you would at higher levels

 

[Jonhard]

TV and media coverage of the domestic scene is similar for women’s UCI and men’s Conti teams I’d say… Tour Series, National Road Series. Maybe some more women’s teams get on telly thanks to La Course and the Madrid Challenge, and you may get some extra media from hiring well-known trackies, much as Wiggle did when they signed the GB team pursuit trio after London 2012.

Not sure what it costs to run a Conti team. I recall a couple of years ago, someone in the business (possibly Karl Lima, who runs Hitec) said £300k would be a nice budget for a UCI women’s outfit. Could be more now.

That said, women’s teams have generally been even less stable than men’s and now is no different. I can think of at least four teams that will fold or significantly cut their programme. Indeed, I wonder if that played a part in One Pro’s plan… there will be a few riders looking for a home.

 

[Tim Booth]

Anybody know what's happening with MADISON GENESIS ? They were down to ride Gooikse Pijl on Sunday, but they have now been removed from the start list. That will be the second race they have not shown up for over there.

 

[King Boonen]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/one-pro-scrap-plans-for-womens-team/

Well that plan lasted long...

 

[yaco]

Realistically was never going to happen because of the late announcement which meant there was a limited pool of riders.

 

[Tim Booth]

Re:

Realistically was never going to happen because of the late announcement which meant there was a limited pool of riders.

Which announcement?
sponsors may well have been put off by the idea of introducing a minimum salary for women's teams.
"This is a very big step for women's cycling," Lappartient told Cyclingnews while he was attending the 2018 UCI Road World Championships in Innsbruck on Sunday.
"I was a little bit afraid when I saw the survey that we have about women's cycling, that in fact, two-thirds of women racing earn less than €10,000 per year. That is not acceptable for us at the governing body."
The UCI will also enforce new contractual regulations that are meant to improve the working conditions for women in cycling.

 

[yaco]

Re: Re:

Realistically was never going to happen because of the late announcement which meant there was a limited pool of riders.

Which announcement?
sponsors may well have been put off by the idea of introducing a minimum salary for women's teams.
"This is a very big step for women's cycling," Lappartient told Cyclingnews while he was attending the 2018 UCI Road World Championships in Innsbruck on Sunday.
"I was a little bit afraid when I saw the survey that we have about women's cycling, that in fact, two-thirds of women racing earn less than €10,000 per year. That is not acceptable for us at the governing body."
The UCI will also enforce new contractual regulations that are meant to improve the working conditions for women in cycling.

It seems obvious I was referring to One Pro Cycling - It's tough to obtain a workable team when you make an announcement in September that you are starting a women's team - It may happen in 2020 - I doubt sponsors would be concerned about a minimum salary for women's riders.

 

[postmanhat]

Some good news

Madison and Canyon are confirmed for 2019. Ribble are moving up a level and have applied for a conti licence. Vitus and Wiggins also more likely than not, though the latter with a possibly reduced roster apparently. Also rumours of a new development team starting, sponsored by a British bike brand.

Holdsworth, unfortunately, could be disbanding, or dropping back to elite level

 

[postmanhat]

Madison Genesis and Team Wiggins both departed this year.

Canyon, Ribble and Vitus are definitely continuing, but no confirmation yet from SwiftCarbon. Also, St Piran are said to be stepping up to CT to coincide with the Tour of Britain starting in Cornwall.

So at the moment, could be anywhere from 3-5 CT teams in the UK.

Irish CT team EvoPro apparently need more cash to continue, but are fairly confident of finding it

http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-news/evopro-racing-sponsorship-2020-season/

 

[Breezy1985]

Madison Genesis and Team Wiggins both departed this year.

Canyon, Ribble and Vitus are definitely continuing, but no confirmation yet from SwiftCarbon. Also, St Piran are said to be stepping up to CT to coincide with the Tour of Britain starting in Cornwall.

So at the moment, could be anywhere from 3-5 CT teams in the UK.

Irish CT team EvoPro apparently need more cash to continue, but are fairly confident of finding it

http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-news/evopro-racing-sponsorship-2020-season/

Evo Pro are a bit of a strange one. Despite being the only pro Irish team they seem pretty incapable of generating the kind of profile or support that An Post or Aqua had and are very hard to follow in terms of races/results

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Evo Pro are a bit of a strange one. Despite being the only pro Irish team they seem pretty incapable of generating the kind of profile or support that An Post or Aqua had and are very hard to follow in terms of races/results

They don’t have the Kelly name attached and none of their Irish riders did anything notable.

I’m always a bit dubious about the prospects of teams operating without a name sponsor

 

[Breezy1985]

They don’t have the Kelly name attached and none of their Irish riders did anything notable.

I’m always a bit dubious about the prospects of teams operating without a name sponsor

I really hope they do kick on but it looks like a lot of work still to be done. Also I never understood why Aqua knowing that An Post were on the way out didn't try to merge the backroom and bring in experienced people with background running an international Irish cycling team but I suppose Delaney was quite gung hi about the whole thing sadly

 

[search]

last winter there were some reports that EvoPro had a massive budget, only missed Pro Conti status because of a deadline, and stuff like that... and then, after a couple of months, they started to opt out of races, and half the team basically didn't race at all anymore in the 2nd part of the season.

Haven't heard any details, but I wouldn't be surprised if they basically had no money at all, and some guys just kept on dangling around Holland and Belgium at their own cost. I'd be very surprised to still see this team around for 2020.

 

[Breezy1985]

last winter there were some reports that EvoPro had a massive budget, only missed Pro Conti status because of a deadline, and stuff like that... and then, after a couple of months, they started to opt out of races, and half the team basically didn't race at all anymore in the 2nd part of the season.

Haven't heard any details, but I wouldn't be surprised if they basically had no money at all, and some guys just kept on dangling around Holland and Belgium at their own cost. I'd be very surprised to still see this team around for 2020.

Big question for me is what is Evo Pro. I always assumed it was a management name like slipstream and they thought a sponsor would come along after a few months

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

last winter there were some reports that EvoPro had a massive budget, only missed Pro Conti status because of a deadline, and stuff like that... and then, after a couple of months, they started to opt out of races, and half the team basically didn't race at all anymore in the 2nd part of the season.

Haven't heard any details, but I wouldn't be surprised if they basically had no money at all, and some guys just kept on dangling around Holland and Belgium at their own cost. I'd be very surprised to still see this team around for 2020.

Worth noting that Wippert, probably their biggest name, seems to be retiring and their younger Irish riders seem to be heading to DN1 teams in France

 

[search]

yeah, with Zhupa and Alafaci also two more of the "bigger" names in there decided to retire from cycling at the end of the season - so either they don't believe in the team to continue, or they don't want to be part of it anyway.

edit: I just checked again, and Alafaci's retirement seems to be injury related, so that's a different story

 

[Izzyeviel]

There's an article in Procycling mag this month about the departure of British teams. I'll try and scan the pages.

Basically, one of the suggested reasons why theres so many teams dropping out lately isn't so much to do with bad management/money etc, but rather a return to normality after the Olympics buzz.