Rabobank is throwing itself again into skilled biking sponsorship after being absent for just about a decade, with Visma-Hire a Motorbike confirming on Thursday that the Dutch-based financial institution would sign up for forces with the squad after signing a three-and-a-half yr deal.
Wielerflits flagged that the re-entry into the world of guys’s and girls’s skilled biking was once within the wings on Wednesday for the monetary establishment which has a presence throughout 35 international locations and in 2024 reported a web benefit of €5,163 million.
“With the addition of Team Visma-Lease a Bike to our sports partnerships, we are returning to our old love: cycling,” Stefaan Decraene, Chairman of the Managing Board of Rabobank, mentioned in a media commentary. “As the jersey sponsor of both the men’s and women’s teams, as well as the Development Team, we look forward to supporting the next generation of cycling talent together.”
Rabobank was previously a title sponsor of a top-level men’s professional cycling team for 17 years, through from 1996 to 2012. It pulled the pin on its sponsorship of the men’s squad following a report from the United States Anti-Doping Agency. At the time Bert Bruggink, a member of the organisation’s Managing Board said “We are no longer convinced that the international professional world of cycling can make this a clean and fair sport. We are not confident that this will change for the better in the foreseeable future.”
Regardless of the preliminary announcement in 2012 additionally foreshadowing a withdrawal from the ladies’s crew, which it had simply began sponsoring that yr, Rabobank ended up closing with the crew thru to the top of 2016. The squad was once one of the vital most powerful forces in girls’s biking right through that length, topping the UCI ratings for 3 of its 5 seasons underneath the Rabobank identify.
The groups have been house to a few key names within the recreation, with riders who rode within the Rabobank jersey at the girls’s squad all through that length together with Marianne Vos, Anna van der Breggen, Annemiek van Vleuten, Kasia Niewiadoma and Pauline Ferrand-Prevot whilst the boys’s crew integrated Robbie McEwen, Johan Bruyneel, Óscar Freire and likewise delivered riders like Michael Matthews and Wilco Kelderman their first WorldTour contracts.
Rabobank’s sponsorship re-entry which is able to see its identify added to the jerseys of the boys’s, girls’s and building crew will start on July 1. The organisation may be be becoming a member of forces with Visma-Hire a Motorbike within the Ready2Race program which targets to introduce kids to biking in an obtainable approach.
“Their decision to rejoin us as a partner is a great compliment,” Richard Plugge, CEO of Visma-Hire a Motorbike mentioned in a commentary. “It shows how much cycling has evolved in recent years and how our team has become synonymous with professionalism, integrity, and success.”
“Through this partnership, we continue building the future of the sport and inspire the next generation of cycling talents. We are proud of this collaboration and excited about what we can achieve together.”
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