Bolton is curious since they stepped just up to pro-conti this year
Van Rysel stepped in for this year...
I'd say they're another one of those like Funvic or ONE Pro where essentially they were strong at the Conti level but were helped by a very fortunate niche in terms of some races that not too many ProTeams entered and a career season from a couple of riders which was unlikely to be replicable just because it was coming from riders who weren't young improving prospects but proven commodities like Aaron Gate who had a career year by getting his best form at the right time to profit in a number of races that suited him.
They were however never really going to be at the front of the queue for invites to major races, with a roster of riders where a good few have decent talent but not as much in terms of name value, and being a largely Kiwi team they didn't have local interest to many races either. So while they may have felt ready for the step up after a brilliant 2022, they were then confronted with the treble whammy; the ProTeam licence costs a lot more than the Conti licence; the ProTeams have to be biopassport compliant so have to pay those costs as well; and in order to comply with the requirements of the level as well as to service the extended racing calendar they needed to have more riders on the books, which drove costs up.
Can't help but feel that the additional exposure from Gate managing 12th in the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race was probably not enough to offset those increased costs, especially as they got to do a good few PS races but nothing else WT level, and their only wins at the PS level came in the Tour of Taihu Lake. As such, they didn't really offer enough of an upgrade on the likes of Burgos-BH, Euskaltel, Bingoal or Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise to justify getting selections for major races over them, so they've essentially become an expensive Conti team.
There are plenty of teams that have done OK and been able to survive at that level with this niche, but those tend to be ones that have the safeguard of home interest for major races, so they tend to be Belgian, French, Spanish or Italian - Human Powered Health and before them United Healthcare showed it can be done, but the cost of that step up is pretty severe if you don't get those invites that make it worth it, as a number of short term ProTeam/ProConti teams who've either disbanded or dropped back down after a single season can attest - people like Drapac (both versions but especially that of the late 2000s), Mitsubishi-Jartazi, Champion System, ONE Pro, PSK Whirlpool, Verva-ActiveJet, Scott-Marcondes César, Spidertech, Stölting, Cult Energy, Team Roth, Soul Brasil, Aqua Blue Sport (they even managed it despite getting the invites in the first year, primarily because that led the owner to think that it was easy and throw the toys out of the pram when they didn't get handed every invite on a silver platter a year later) and Holowesko...
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