From the Tour de France onwards, Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe will be the new name in WorldTour peloton, the German team announced today.
The team has signed a deal with the energy drink company that will see all new branding, including for bikes, jerseys and helmets – as well as a considerable budget hike.
“Why did we start this? Easy explanation – big wins drive me,” said team boss Ralph Denk. “We have big, big goals with Red Bull. You need the potential to win the Tour de France. It’s not about one week to another, it’s mid-term and long-term.
“Brand number one – the most attractive brand in cycling – is, for the whole project, a big goal,” he added.
The team was given the go-ahead to partner with Red Bull by the Austrian authorities in January. Now, Denk says, the paperwork is finally done.
“It’s a lot of work for us to bring this change forward, but it’s also an exciting moment,” he said.
There were no immediate plans to splash out on already-established superstars who had already won the Tour de France, he insisted, but rather to create home-grown talent through investment in an under-23 squad.
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The 50-year-old German said he would not go into the hard figures of the new budget, but confirmed, “I will say, it’s a good one, I’m proud of it. It is not our goal now to buy the biggest riders who have won already the Tour… a lot of budget will be reinvested in performance structure.”
He dismissed rumours that have circulated about various big name riders – including Remco Evenepoel and Wout van Aert – being linked to the team in the past months.
“Everybody was linked to us that drank in the past a can of Red Bull. Fantastic riders but all have a valid contract,” he said. “We will see what the future brings but our approach is not to go from team to team asking for a buyout clause.”
“With Grenke-Auto Eder we already have one the strongest under-19 teams, and we will fulfil the whole team structure with now an under-23 team in the future,” he added, “to prepare our really big talents. This is the main focus in the next years, to create the next icon riders from scratch, from our own talent pool.”
In terms of GC riders the team does already boast talent such as Jai Hindley, and Primož Roglič – who has not raced since his crash in last month’s Itzulia Basque Country. Denk said he had already completed a number of Tour de France recons and was confident he would be on form for July.
At this stage, he said, the team would not be creating a women’s team, but did not rule it out in the future.
“I have huge respect for women’s cycling, where they are now and how it has grown, but we will establish our under-23 team… this is our first focus, and maybe later on we will consider a women’s team – but not in ’25,” he said.
