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BMC Racing Team saved as CCC takes over sponsorship from 2019

Greg Van Avarmaet to lead UCI WorldTour team next season with backing of Polish footwear retailer

The future of the BMC Racing Team has been assured with the announcement today that Poland’s largest retailer, the footwear and bags specialist CCC, will be taking over headline sponsorship from the Swiss bike brand from the start of next season.

With Greg Van Avermaet – currently leading the Tour de France – confirmed as team leader, the US-registered UCI WorldTour team will initially target the Classics and one-week stage races.

News of the deal was announced at BMC Racing’s rest day press conference this afternoon, and follows several months of speculation over the team’s future following the death earlier this year of long-time backer, the Swiss businessman Andy Rihs.

> BMC owner Andy Rihs dies at age of 75 after long illness

The partnership was announced by CCC president Dariusz Milek and Jim Ochowicz, general manager of BMC Racing, whose management company is Continuum Sports.

Ochowicz said: “It is no secret that we have been looking for a new title sponsor for 2019 and we are excited to be here today at the biggest cycling race in the World to announce CCC as the title sponsor of Continuum Sports from 2019 onwards.

“CCC president Dariusz Milek shares the same passion for cycling as our organisation and together we can continue to build on the team’s existing success.

“To also be able to announce that current Tour de France race leader Greg Van Avermaet has renewed his contract beyond the 2018 season in an exciting way to begin this relationship.

“We have seen Greg develop into one of the best riders in the World and we are delighted to retain him as the team’s star rider in 2019.”

He added: “We have a busy few months ahead of us as we begin to plan for the next season so I am looking forward to welcoming CCC as title sponsor.”

CCC has expanded throughout central and eastern Europe in recent years and is now active in Germany and looking to move into other western European countries with Milek, a dollar billionaire, keen to use sponsorship at WorldTour level as a way to increase brand exposure internationally. said

Despite the company backing a team at UCI Professional Continental level since 2006, it has been made clear that today’s deal is not a merger of the two outfits.

The exact title of the new team, which will race in CCC’s signature orange colour, will be announced shortly and it is possible there may be another title sponsor, while there will certainly be a change of bike sponsor.

Van Avermaet is the only rider confirmed to date, and while no deals for 2019 can be announced until the end of July, both Richie Porte and Tejay van Garderen are out of contract at the end of this season.

With the team not targeting the overall at Grand Tours, Porte, who abandoned the Tour de France yesterday after crashing, is strongly rumoured to join Trek-Segafredo for next year.

As far a s potential incoming riders are concerned, ones from Poland would clearly be a draw for sponsorship reasons.

The country’s highest profile rider, former world champion Michal Kwiatkowski, is under contract with Team Sky until 2020, although Rafa Majka’s contract with Bora-Hansgrohe expires at the end of this season.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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7 comments

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cptlik | 5 years ago
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Its like a broom with two new handles and three new brushes.  Team BMC will now have a new bike sponsor and a new title sponsor so the name will obvs change.  Its hard to get to grips with a lot of cycle teams, i would have had no idea that the teams core is actually some management company called Continuum Sports.  With something like football its clear cut - the team is called something related to the town it is based in, it has a long history, and its easy to identify with and get behind a team.  I'm not really sure what point im making but with cycling - though i love following it and watching it i couldnt really say that i back a team and part of me feels that if i could that would enhance my enjoyment of it.

Is SKY owned by SKY or do they just sponsor the team; is the Trek team actually owned by Trek or are they just sponsoring a management company?  Its so bloody confusing with cycling (I realise that football teams are owned by investment funds etc etc but though i cant describe what i mean very well, it just seems different).

Avatar
Edgeley replied to cptlik | 5 years ago
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cptlik wrote:

Its like a broom with two new handles and three new brushes.  Team BMC will now have a new bike sponsor and a new title sponsor so the name will obvs change.  Its hard to get to grips with a lot of cycle teams, i would have had no idea that the teams core is actually some management company called Continuum Sports.  With something like football its clear cut - the team is called something related to the town it is based in, it has a long history, and its easy to identify with and get behind a team.  I'm not really sure what point im making but with cycling - though i love following it and watching it i couldnt really say that i back a team and part of me feels that if i could that would enhance my enjoyment of it.

Is SKY owned by SKY or do they just sponsor the team; is the Trek team actually owned by Trek or are they just sponsoring a management company?  Its so bloody confusing with cycling (I realise that football teams are owned by investment funds etc etc but though i cant describe what i mean very well, it just seems different).

 

Well it is a bit of a mess.  But can you think of a better way of organising teams?   The only way I can think of is for the UCI to own all the teams, and still allow sponsors to be written in big letters on each of the team's kit.  Not sure that would be much of an improvement.  The fundamental problems with road cycling are that its only income is from sponsorship and TV rights, and the TV rights are mainly owned by third parties like ASO, and that it is a team sport with no obvious way of setting up teams.

Avatar
Crampy | 5 years ago
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Polih retailer.

Treg-Segafredo.

FFS.

Avatar
gbzpto replied to Crampy | 5 years ago
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Crampy wrote:

Polih retailer.

Treg-Segafredo.

FFS.

it gets worse with each article. What is with all the 10 best blah blah blah etc. Lets have some real articles.

Avatar
Tony Farrelly replied to gbzpto | 5 years ago
1 like

gbzpto wrote:
Crampy wrote:

Polih retailer.

Treg-Segafredo.

FFS.

it gets worse with each article. What is with all the 10 best blah blah blah etc. Lets have some real articles.

Simon is very sorry for the typos, but it's a long, busy day writing the news on road.cc for a thankless taskmaster like me when the Tour is on so let's cut him some slack.

As for what's with all the 10 best blah, blah, blah articles?
Simple, they get read A LOT which is why we invest a lot of time and effort in regularly updating them.

Avatar
check12 replied to Tony Farrelly | 5 years ago
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Tony Farrelly wrote:

gbzpto wrote:
Crampy wrote:

Polih retailer.

Treg-Segafredo.

FFS.

it gets worse with each article. What is with all the 10 best blah blah blah etc. Lets have some real articles.

Simon is very sorry for the typos, but it's a long, busy day writing the news on road.cc for a thankless taskmaster like me when the Tour is on so let's cut him some slack.

As for what's with all the 10 best blah, blah, blah articles?
Simple, they get read A LOT which is why we invest a lot of time and effort in regularly updating them.

How about doing an article about 10 of the best 10 of the best articles? Kind of like inception if you will. 

Feel free to send 0.24% commission to my agent. 

Avatar
Pitbull Steelers | 5 years ago
1 like

Glad another team hasn't bitten the dust. 

It will be interesting to see what their kit looks like, the bright orange of CCC mixed with the red and white of BMC 

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