Matt Prior launches women’s cycling team
Former cricketer wound up his men’s cycling team because female squad is a better financial prospect
Matt Prior has told The Sunday Telegraph that he is “hugely excited” by the prospect of starting a women’s team next year, describing the switch from men’s cycling as a “no-brainer from a business perspective” as there was “no value right now” in competing in men’s racing below World Tour level.
In a warning which should ring alarm bells at British Cycling and within the corridors of the UCI, cycling’s world governing body, Prior added that he was “not sure” how many domestic teams would be around next season. “The amount of races in the UK is declining and everyone is looking for new sponsors,” he said. “It’s not in a healthy place at all”.
The former England cricketer added in an exclusive interview, however, that the decision to pull the plug on his men’s team at the end of 2018 was “not the end of One Pro Cycling”, insisting that he would like to return to men’s racing once the commercial climate was more favourable.
One Pro’s bombshell – just as they prepare to compete at their marquee event for the season, the Ovo Energy Tour of Britain, which begins in South Wales this morning – will leave the domestic racing scene in the UK reeling. After Aqua Blue’s announcement on Monday, they are the second men’s team at Conti or Pro Conti level to pull the plug this week. Their departure after just four seasons will raise further questions about the commercial viability of men’s professional cycling further down the ladder. Other British domestic teams are known to be struggling to raise sponsorship, and Prior told The Sunday Telegraph that there “just wasn’t any value” in racing at that level.
“We literally have to pay a fortune just to take part,” he said. “Obviously everyone knows we lost a key sponsor [Factor Bikes] and had to drop back down to Conti level [in 2017]. But you’re still asking companies for huge sums of money just to sponsor a Conti team. With Brexit and Trump and all the financial uncertainty at the moment – and when you think about all the history of men’s cycling [the doping culture] – it is difficult to ask.”
He added: “The reality is we are unable to compete in men’s cycling at the moment. 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 has. For a fraction of that money – maybe £1.5 million – you could have a very competitive women’s World Tour team.”
Aqua Blue owner Rick Delaney was heavily criticised for the way in which his exit from the sport was handled, with riders finding out via email on Monday. Some of them had recently signed new multi-year contracts.
However, the likes of Conor Dunne, the Irish champion, will not even have the chance to put themselves in the shop window at this week’s Tour of Britain with Aqua Blue’s decision to stop racing taking immediate effect.
Prior was at pains to stress that he had been as fair as possible to his riders. The Sunday Telegraph understands that all riders, staff and sponsors were informed on Friday, soon after the team’s management accepted defeat in their bid to raise sponsorship for a return to Pro Continental level. One Pro riders were on rolling one-year deals anyway, with Prior saying that during the season he actively “encouraged them to listen to other offers if they came along”.
‘The amount of races in the UK is declining. Everyone is looking for new sponsors. It is not in a healthy place’
“Listen,” Prior said. “No one wants to give bad news to riders. We’ve been pushing right up until this week to find a sponsor for Pro Conti. It just hasn’t happened. But the truth is we really see this as a positive move. Not because we feel we’ve been forced into it. We could have stayed at Conti level but it just doesn’t make sense. For me this is a positive, not a negative.
“This is certainly not the end for One Pro. Who is to say that in one year’s time, if we found a suitable investor, we couldn’t start a men’s team again?”
In the meantime, Prior said, he was hugely excited by the prospect of setting up a women’s squad.
“With the announcements the UCI have made regarding women’s cycling from 2020, we are massively excited about what the future holds,” he said. “There is so much potential for growth and all the investors I have spoken to so far appear to be similarly excited.”
Prior said the plan was to launch next year, with most of the team’s existing sponsors and partners “much preferring” the idea of backing a women’s team, where returns on investment are potentially significantly greater.
“We’re still negotiating our roster and partners for 2019 but hopefully by the end of September, which is the deadline for registering, we’ll have it all sorted,” Prior said, adding that he had already held discussions with one rider in particular who would be a “very exciting” signing.
“It will be determined a bit by what our budget looks like,” he said. “Once we know that we can set about getting our riders. Of course, time is of the essence and many of them are already signed up; 2019 will be a challenge, a transitional year, and it’s probably only 2020 or even 2021 when we can expect to be really competitive.”
And what of One Pro’s ambition, announced at the outset in 2015, to one day ride in the Tour de France? “I never said it would be the men’s Tour de France,” Prior replied. “There is a lot of chat about extending La Course into a full-on women’s race.”