Shock as Sky quit cycling after 2019 season
The future of the most successful cycling team of the last decade was put in doubt yesterday when Sky announced its withdrawal from the sport following the European pay TV giant’s takeover by American company Comcast.
Team Sky, who had a rider win the Tour de France this year for the sixth time in seven races, will require new ownership if they are to continue competing — under a new name — from 2020.
“We plan to be together in 2020 if at all possible,” said Chris Froome, who has raced for Team Sky since their debut in 2010 and won four Tour de France titles. “We will all be doing everything we can to help make that happen — in different colours with a new partner with the same values, focus and desire to win.”
Sky spent £34.5 million (Dh159.28 million) last year and generated only £6.7 million in revenue that didn’t come from the owners. The team was reliant on the £25.3 million in title sponsorship in 2017 from shareholders Sky and 21st Century Fox.
“The vision for Team Sky began with the ambition to build a clean, winning team around a core of British riders and staff,” said team principal Dave Brailsford.
“While Sky will be moving on at the end of next year, the team is openminded about the future and the potential of working with a new partner, should the right opportunity present itself.”
The news, which was broken to stunned riders and staff over dinner at their training camp in Mallorca on Tuesday night, draws to an end more than a decade of success during, which the team won six Tour de France yellow jerseys as the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana — along with 52 other stage races and 25 one-day races. ■