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Cycling Team Friuli is in talks with a WT squad to become its official development team, and may also turn more international on from 2022

https://www.ciclismoweb.net/interviste/team-friuli-fusaz-nel-2022-con-una-world-tour-e-potremmo-andare-all-estero/21168

[LukasCPH]

Cycling Team Friuli is in talks with a WT squad to become its official development team, and may also turn more international on from 2022

https://www.ciclismoweb.net/interviste/team-friuli-fusaz-nel-2022-con-una-world-tour-e-potremmo-andare-all-estero/21168

UAE? I have a hard time seeing any other WT team looking for a development team.

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https://twitter.com/WielerFlits/status/1272509410657607681

The plan for Beat is still to go PCT, but it may be postponed for a year now.

They now started a "The Netherlands need a ProTeam" campaign to attract interest and sponsors, so it's probably not looking great so far

https://www.nederlandheefteenproteamnodig.nl/

[Leadbelly]

https://twitter.com/WielerFlits/status/1412343668594327552

Not great news for Lotto fans. Soudal will stop co-sponsoring the team at the end of 2022.

Coincidentally or not, that is when the new WT licences will be decided, and if you have been watching the relevant thread, you will have seen that Lotto are in deep trouble.

Going by my last update, they were just hanging on to the last WT spot, but with Ewan crashing out of the Tour and Martin set to score a fair amount of GC points in the same race, then no doubt they will be in the "relegation" zone sooner rather than later.

The last line of the article sounds ominous (but bear in mind this is via google translate).

The National Lottery will continue to invest in a cycling team afterwards and in Belgian cycling by extension.

So "a" team. Could the team disappear and Lotto just jumps onboard with someone else? or a merger?

[Joan]

Already Roompot failed playing the national card. With the development teams of Jumbo Visma and DSM plus SEG Racing, the Dutch talent market is more than empty. What has been the outcome of 5 Roompot years?

[LukasCPH]

The last line of the article sounds ominous (but bear in mind this is via google translate).

So "a" team. Could the team disappear and Lotto just jumps onboard with someone else? or a merger?

It's the same in the original Dutch: "Een wielerploeg".

Lotto is already a minor sponsor at ... might they merge the (more Flemish[1]) Lotto team with the (definitely Walloon) Bingoal-WB team as e.g. Lotto-Bingoal, and settle in the niche of "top ProTeam that gets invites to the odd GrandTour" that Wanty occupied before buying a WT licence?

1.	except for Gilbert

[Leadbelly]

It's the same in the original Dutch: "Een wielerploeg".

Interesting.

I'll muddy the waters a bit though. I checked the Lotto website and they have the same article in French, Dutch and English.

The English version uses "a team" and the Dutch has "een wielerploeg", but the French has "l’équipe".

All this confusion over a couple of letters.

[Leadbelly]

https://twitter.com/WielerFlits/status/1412343668594327552

Not great news for Lotto fans. Soudal will stop co-sponsoring the team at the end of 2022.

Coincidentally or not, that is when the new WT licences will be decided.

HLN has an opinion piece on this very subject. Not being a subscriber I haven't viewed the article, but the first few lines give the gist of his thoughts.

https://www.hln.be/wielrennen/onze-chef-wielrennen-nu-lefevere-het-lief-van-de-loterij-heeft-afgepakt-dit-lotto-soudal-mist-sexappeal-en-internationale-uitstraling~a1bcf540/

What about the Lotto team? In 2023, Soudal will become the new main sponsor of Patrick Lefevere's team and at the end of 2022 'the Lottery' will lose half of its sponsorship money. “With young riders, less money and few results, it will come as no surprise that Lotto will turn his back on the WorldTour in 2023”

That's what he thinks anyway. Tosh and Oldani leaving could be a sign of things to come. Ewan's contract is up at the end of 2022....

[Leadbelly]

https://twitter.com/AstanaPremTech/status/1423351866423971841

I wonder how that will affect the balance of power in the team. The Canadian element sided with Seel in her battle with Vino, but now what...

[t-72]

North American tech companies, no, tech companies in general are the mayflies of sport sponsorship. They are created with lots of startup cash from rich shareholders (predominantly investment funds), and think that a sports sponsorship would be a nice way to make people familiar with their company. Then comes the troubled cashflow phase, caused by delays in bringing products to market, a competitor that suddenly comes up with a much brighter idea and leaves the company´s main product in the doldrums with very limited sales.  The shareholders start dropping their shares at a discount rate. The chief financial officer shouts «we have to improve our cashflow» but they have no income, they can only cut expenses. The financial controllers start browsing through their records. «What is this?» they ask «10 million Euros for a cycling team?» which team? What? Never heard of us selling something in Khasakstan!

«Cut the expenses now, or our bonuses for this year will not be paid!»

«Sponsorship» «delete»

Which tech companies with short sponsor record can you remember? I will start:
- Belkin
- Splunk
- Premier Tech
- ???

Possible exceptions:
- Movistar
- Visma

By comparison, the construction-related business that this sport is full of seems to carry on for years and years.

[LukasCPH]

North American tech companies, no, tech companies in general are the mayflies of sport sponsorship.

Is Premier Tech a tech company? Yeah, I guess it is when it has 'Tech' in its name ...

But I still haven't understood exactly what Premier Tech does. What I can understand is that it grew out of a peat moss import & production company founded in 1923, and now consists of several branches, including one for (small) sewage treatment plants.
That doesn't sound like your typical modern tech startup to me.

What's more, the sponsor has announced that "Premier Tech is committed to the sport of cycling and will announce in the near future the next phase of its presence in the peloton and WorldTour scene."
So, which WT team will they switch to? Place your bets.

[LukasCPH]

Meanwhile:
https://twitter.com/AstanaPremTech/status/1427163977700855811

Has a bit of a "the lady doth protest too much" vibe to it to me ... why wouldn't the team continue?

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well, they just lost 50% of their funding, and weren't exactly well off before.

With Fuglsang, Lutsenko and so on all rumoured to leave, best they can hope for is probably a Vino comeback

[t-72]

well, they just lost 50% of their funding, and weren't exactly well off before.

The other big sponsor, KMG will earn more money with the current oil price compared with the last few years, and may have deeper pockets now. In theory, that means more ability to invest in projects like cycling teams etc. However, a state oil company´s income is one thing, how much they get to keep is another thing. They also fund the glorious republic of Khazakstan in general, Oliver Stone films and a few other projects as deemed necessary by the great leader and president of the nation.

[Leadbelly]

https://twitter.com/WielerFlits/status/1432636052360007681

Payment problems at 

Is anybody surprised?

Even if they do get a new sponsor onboard, the timing of this is very poor in regard to signing/retaining the level of rider they need to try and keep their WT spot in 2023.

[LukasCPH]

Payment problems at 

Is anybody surprised?

If anything, I'm surprised it took this long.

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Even if they do get a new sponsor onboard, the timing of this is very poor in regard to signing/retaining the level of rider they need to try and keep their WT spot in 2023.

they could be fine if Premier Tech is willing to get on board. From what it sounds like, they were very interested to continue their involvement in WT cycling.

[Leadbelly]

https://twitter.com/philippepriser/status/1440935974243086337

A new French CT team? Team UC Nantes Atlantique hope so.

Anthony Ravard is in charge.

Our project is to create a cycling academy that is unique in France from 2022 with young people who will arrive in our training center from the second class. We would have a real junior team competing in UCI races and a professional team made up of ten to twelve riders only riders under 23 years old. It would participate in class 2 and class 1 races, ”continued Anthony Ravard who, if the Nantes project sees the light of day, should retain at least a third of the N1 workforce.

They're currently riding in Bretagne.

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+ Premier Tech didn't work out in the end

https://twitter.com/Cyclingnewsfeed/status/1447954729544323090

[Leadbelly]

For every one of those three remaining options listed by the Premier Tech CEO, it's easy to see good and bad points or stumbling blocks if you prefer.

Jumping on board here will get them their best exposure and with Woods already on the team - they have their best "home" rider. However I can't see them getting part ownership and with the team signing the best Canadians in the future, with or without Premier Tech, their involvement would be pretty much limited to handing over a cheque every year imo.

Part ownership is no problem here and they'd be WT in 2022, but not after that......and 2022 might not be a bundle of laughs anyway with an even weaker team than this year in all likelihood.

Not WT and not likely to be in the near future. Would UnitedHealthCare be interested in a deal? They've got the Canadian link again though, but with riders of a lower level.

It's a difficult one.

[search]

with the arrival of Hugo Houle at , this option of course looks most likely now.

Although Premier Tech CEO Jean Bélanger arranged the transfer (of him and Fuglsang), no sponsorship contracts have been signed yet, though.

https://www.lapresse.ca/sports/cyclisme/2021-10-13/hugo-houle-chez-israel-start-up-nation/le-meilleur-des-mondes.php?s=09

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according to Gazzetta, looks likely to close at the end of the year

https://www.gazzetta.it/Ciclismo/15-10-2021/vini-zabu-ktm-futuro-rischio-l-italia-puo-perdere-team-professional-4201828064138.shtml

[Leadbelly]

They've usually had one or two riders per year who've looked interesting (Orrico this year for instance) or who do enough to earn a move to bigger things, but the rest of the team......yeesh. It's like Burgos at times, if you didn't know better you'd think they were actively out looking for below average talent riders.

[LukasCPH]

with the arrival of Hugo Houle at , this option of course looks most likely now.

Although Premier Tech CEO Jean Bélanger arranged the transfer (of him and Fuglsang), no sponsorship contracts have been signed yet, though.

https://www.lapresse.ca/sports/cyclisme/2021-10-13/hugo-houle-chez-israel-start-up-nation/le-meilleur-des-mondes.php?s=09

according to Gazzetta, looks likely to close at the end of the year

https://www.gazzetta.it/Ciclismo/15-10-2021/vini-zabu-ktm-futuro-rischio-l-italia-puo-perdere-team-professional-4201828064138.shtml

Combine these two news and add this one:
https://www.tuttobiciweb.it/article/2021/10/16/1634306388/vini-zabu.-worldtour-intermarche

Vini Fantini/Vini Zabù/Farnese Vini --> & Premier Tech --> starts to sound likely.


Personally, I'm still not convinced Premier Tech will join ISN, though: Sylvan Adams isn't going to give up equity in the team and let someone else become co-owner. I think the Fuglsang/Houle deal was simply Premier Tech saying "we will get you a contract somewhere, don't worry", and when the talks fell apart, PT put them in ISN instead - possibly (probably, even) paying their salaries for (part of) the duration.
I call it "doing a Spidertech", they did the same with many of their riders (incl. Boivin) when the team stopped.

[Leadbelly]

https://www.premiertech.com/announcements/premier-tech-announces-creation-its-u23-development-cycling-team

I don't know if this is instead of joining up with a WT team (I-SUN in all likelihood) or in addition to it. Either way it makes more sense to me and will enable Belanger to get more hands on and involved, which seemed to be a stumbling block with BikeExchange and maybe with I-SUN as well.

Dassonville will be the man in charge, so we can imagine that France might be their base and a Frenchman or two on the team could help with local invites.

[Leadbelly]

https://twitter.com/ollieman56/status/1464485872393461760

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makes sense to follow each other if you share the same fate of not having a sponsor, I guess

Global 6 is a super low budget team, and it's not a brand name even, but just expresses the aproach of bringing together cyclist from all continents. There's maybe a small chance that Paluta could be the link in there to get some old friends from Poland back on board to fund the team, but not sure why it would need Global6 for that instead of sponsoring Qhubeka directly, and sign him as a rider.

[Leadbelly]

.....or as some of the replies mention, it could just be Mitri looking for a couple of new (cheap) riders.

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as is closing down at the end of the year, parts of the team have moved on and joined former team boss Serge Parsani to create a new Tuscan Continental team, sponsored by German bike brand Corratec

https://www.tuttobiciweb.it/article/2021/11/30/1638219916/parsani-team-corratec-nuova-squadra

The team will have 16 riders, 8 of them U23. Veljko Stojnic and Dusan Rajovic are two of the better known names announced so far. They want to return to PT in 2023.

There's been no mention of guys like Citracca or Scinto yet, so maybe there's a chance they plan to leave some of the past behind.

[LukasCPH]

https://twitter.com/BritishConti/status/1472850524059979776

Do you understand the concept of a "blockchain-based wine investment trading company"? Me neither.

An upside is that this frees the kit smiley for the women's team, however.