One pro cycling had planned to stop its men’s team and start up a women’s UCI team. But now it has said those plans won’t happen (Photo: One Pro Cycling)
ONE Pro Cycling has been forced to abandon its plans for a women’s team next year. It said it could not find a sponsor to make the mooted women’s outfit possible.
The UK-based Continental team was founded in 2015 and has had a men’s team since then.
However, it had recently announced the decision to scrap the men’s team and divert resources into a woman’s squad.
Team management said there was more return for sponsors in women’s cycling.
But today the squad has issued a statement confirming that not only would it have no men’s team next year, it’s suggested women’s team was also not happening.
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ONE Pro Cycling is the latest in a series of teams to be hit by the continued economic uncertainty.
JLT Condor, which counted Irish rider Robert Jon McCarthy on its roster, has closed for lack of a new headline sponsor.
Aqua Blue Sport, an Irish-registered ProContinental team, ceased operation as a team in August, just over 1½ years into its existence.
And the Sean Kelly team – formerly called An Post-Chainreaction – will not return to the peloton next year.
It did not race this year after An Post withdrew as a title sponsor and a replacement could not be found.
Sean Kelly recently told stickybottle it would not be back next year as hoped.
Instead he and Kurt Bogaerts would continue talks with a number of possible sponsors and make a return after next season.
In announcing its news today, ONE Pro Cycling said it had no option but to immediately confirm it would have no team next year.
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“ONE Pro Cycling are sadly forced to announce that we will not be able to run a UCI cycling team for the 2019 season,” its statement said.
“The team were committed to putting together a woman’s UCI squad for next season but due to lack of sponsorship we have not been able to raise a satisfactory budget to match our aims.
“We are keen to pick up this journey for 2020 and will continue conversations throughout 2019.
“ONE Pro Cycling would like to thank all members, fans, partners and staff for their support.
“We set out with a hugely ambitious plan and are very proud of everything we have achieved over the past four years.”
The team was begun by former cricketer Matt Prior. It raced in 2015 at Continental level before going ProContinental in 2016 only to drop down one tier again for this year and last year.
Just four weeks ago Prior told the Daily Telegraph newspaper in England that switching from men’s to women’s cycling was a “no-brainer from a business perspective”.
He added there was “no value right now” in competing in men’s racing below WorldTour.
“We literally have to pay a fortune just to take part,” he said of keeping a Continental-level team on the road.
“Obviously everyone knows we lost a key sponsor and had to drop back down to Conti level,” he said of losing Factor Bikes for the 2017 season.
“But you’re still asking companies for huge sums of money just to sponsor a Conti team.”
Prior added the general economic uncertainty was compounded by “Brexit and Trump”.
And the doping history of men’s cycling meant it was hard to even ask prospective sponsors for money.
“The reality is we are unable to compete in men’s cycling at the moment,” he said.
“You’d need £15 million minimum to be competitive at World Tour level, which is where we want to be. And even that would be £20 million below what Sky have.
"For a fraction of that money – maybe £1.5 million – you could have a very competitive women’s WorldTour team,” he added in his Telegraph interview.
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