Troubled Trek-drops sparks fears for women’s cycling
World Championship spots under threat if sole British UCI squad closes
Despite recent successes, British women could struggle to compete at major championships should the struggling Trek-drops team go to the wall.
After the late withdrawal of a new sponsor, the Milton-keynes based outfit is running out of time to meet the November 26 deadline for UCI registration.
While team managers have told Cycling Weekly that they have had “several conversations” with potential backers, they did not describe these as positive, and they are yet to secure funding for the squad’s future as a UCI Women’s team.
At the time of going to press, the team had attracted only five per cent of the required sum on its crowd-funding page. The future looks uncertain at best.
In its three seasons the team has been a major force for exposing British women to top-level competition.
“We’re a team that gets invitations to lots of Worldtour races and without that invitation there’ll only be a couple of Brits doing them,” team rider Abby-mae Parkinson told CW. “Without us there the British representation isn’t big at all so it will be a massive loss.”
Should Drops be forced to fold, or return to domestic status, Britain will be left with no UCI Women’s teams, meaning no British squads at the country’s two Women’s Worldtour events, the OVO Energy Women’s Tour and the Prudential Ridelondon Classique.
“These races are how we show off British talent, and without them it’s a massive shame for us and up-and-coming riders,”
“There will only be a couple of Brits in Worldtour races ”
continued Parkinson. It will also affect the ability to score ranking points and thus compete at World Championships.
The absence of Lizzie Deignan this year has hugely impacted on the world ranking points British women have earned. In 2018 GB finished 13th in the UCI’S standings, their lowest place for 10 seasons. This position meant only six riders qualified for the Innsbruck World Championships as opposed to the maximum seven.
This is a far cry from 2017 when Alice Barnes, then riding as leader for Drops, was one of three Brits in the top 50. This year Dani Rowe (Waowdeals) was the only home representative, with Barnes way down in 115th, having moved to a domestique role at Canyon-sram.
After the Bergen World Championships in 2017 Deignan declared that the future of British women’s cycling was bright. This year, without a rider of her totemic standing, GB has struggled and the lack of a British team would only make that worse in future.