Cycling
With Red Bull to the top of the world? Coup for German cycling team
Bora professional Anton Palzer is already supported by Red Bull. photo
© Hendrik Schmidt/dpa
The German WorldTour team Bora-hansgrohe is about to partner with Red Bull. This could take the cycling team around Primoz Roglic to a new level.
First superstar Primoz Roglic, now top sponsor Red Bull: The German racing team Bora-hansgrohe is on the verge of its next coup and could rise to the absolute top of the world in cycling with the financially strong backer.
The major Salzburg company wants to take over 51 percent of team boss Ralph Denk’s WorldTour team. A corresponding merger application was received by the Austrian Federal Competition Authority (BWB) at the end of December, as it announced on its homepage on Tuesday.
The Bora team confirmed the desired partnership in a statement. As a partner of Denk’s operating company, Red Bull will “complement the portfolio of the existing long-term main sponsors who continue to be committed to the team in the long term,” it said. The team did not want to comment further on the deal, as the application deadline for acquiring the majority shares in the Bora racing team to the Federal Competition Authority does not end until January 26th.
Red Bull’s entry is intended to close the gap to top teams
It would be the next coup for the German team after the team had just been able to sign the Giro d’Italia winner Primoz Roglic from Slovenia for the new season. With the entry of the financially strong sponsor, Denk may also be able to close the gap to the top teams such as Visma-Lease a Bike, UAE or Ineos, which have dominated cycling in recent years.
There is definitely a two-tier society, Denk told the German Press Agency last year. “If you look at the races, there are a few teams and superstars who are very good at it. It’s the famous needle in a haystack, if you have them in your own ranks, it’s of course great.” With Roglic, Bora-hansgrohe wants to intervene in the duel between defending champion Jonas Vingegaard (Denmark) and two-time champion Tadej Pogacar (Slovenia) at the Tour de France this year.
Red Bull already supports individual cyclists
In the future, the Bora-hansgrohe team may then be on a par with the industry leaders, who previously had an estimated budget of around 50 million euros per year, twice as much as the German team. It would be the next step in a journey that began in 2010 in the depths of cycling. Little by little, the Denk team worked its way up, the tour premiered in 2014, and the next boost came in 2017 with the signing of three-time world champion Peter Sagan (Slovakia). The highlight so far was the Giro win by the Australian Jai Hindley in 2022.
Red Bull, which is particularly successful in Formula 1, football and extreme sports, has not previously appeared as a team sponsor in cycling. There have been connections to Bora-hansgrohe in scouting and performance for some time. The Austrian company also supported, among others, Bora professional Anton Palzer, who was once a successful ski mountaineer and dared to switch sides. Belgian star Wout van Aert and British mountain bike Olympic champion Tom Pidcock also advertise with Red Bull on their helmets.