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13 crazy pro team sponsors and their unlikely products

Find out what all those title sponsors actually do for a living. Some are a little... unexpected

The names of the pro teams are part of the language of cycling, but what the title sponsors actually do is sometimes a mystery to most of us. Okay, we all know that Ineos is a chemical company with a sideline in Land Rover wannabe cars and BMC Racing Team didn't leave much room for confusion, but some of the sponsors are a little more obscure. Here are some of the most interesting from the top levels of the sport.

Androni Giocattoli–Sidermec

Giro d'Italia 2021 action Credit: CorVos/SWpix.com

Simon Pellaud of Androni Giocattoli - Sidermec (left) in the action at the Giro d'Italia 2021 Credit: CorVos/SWpix.com

The second tier Pro Continental roster is where you'll find some of the most marvellously obscure sponsors (at least from an Anglophone point of view). Androni Giocattoli is an Italian maker of kids' toys, known for beach toys (yes, buckets and spades) and a Lego Duplo lookalike, Unico Plus. 

Also from Italy, Sidermec makes steel sheet for the canning industry, which has to be one of the more oblique marketing-via-sponsorship propositions. It's not like anyone chooses a can of beans because the manufacturer of the steel used to make the can sponsors bike racing.

Bora–Hansgrohe

Peter Sagan, Bora Hansgrohe (Zac Williams:SWpix.com)

Peter Sagan, Bora Hansgrohe (Zac Williams:SWpix.com)

Bora makes hobs that draw cooking vapours and smells away before they can spread around your house, hence all the videos of former world champion Peter Sagan cooking that appeared on social media a while ago. To be fair, he does them well in a Blue Peter kind of way.

For the record, fellow title sponsor Hansgrohe makes taps, sinks, showers and stuff like that, if you were wondering.

Trek-Segafredo

Lizzie Deignan of Trek Segafredo practises for the Olympic Cobble Relay after winning Paris-Roubaix - credit Dion Kerckhoffs:CorVos:SWpix.com_.JPG

Lizzie Deignan of Trek Segafredo practises for the Olympic Cobble Relay after winning Paris-Roubaix - credit Dion Kerckhoffs/CorVos/SWpix.com

The Segafredo half of Trek-Segafredo refers to an Italian coffee brand. It’s no surprise to find coffee featuring among the World Tour team sponsors, caffeine being about as central to cycling as shaved legs and Lycra. It always has been. You might well know, for example, that the Faema name which was emblazoned across Eddy Merckx’s chest for a large part of his career is a brand of coffee machine. Saeco, sponsor of the hugely successful team of Italian sprinter Mario Cipollini in the late 90s, also makes coffee machines.

Deceuninck–Quick-Step

Julian Alaphilippe, Deceuninck Quick-Step (Alex Broadway:ASO:SWpix.com)

Julian Alaphilippe, Deceuninck Quick-Step (Alex Broadway:ASO:SWpix.com)

One of the longest-running teams in the pro peloton, Patrick Lefevere's squad has had Quick-Step flooring as its principal or secondary sponsor since 1999.

New principal sponsor Deceuninck NV is a Flanders-based multi-national designer and producer of PVC building materials such as windows, doors and cladding.

CCC Team

Joseph Roskopf, Team CCC (Zac Williams:SWpix.com)

Joseph Roskopf, Team CCC (Zac Williams:SWpix.com)

Headquartered in Polkowice, Poland, CCC is a retailer and manufacturer of shoes and bags. They don't make cycling shoes, which is a bit disappointing, but the team is nevertheless Poland's first WorldTour team.

Lotto-Soudal

Florian Vermeersch of Lotto Soudal attempts to escape from a small helicopter during Paris-Roubaix Credit SWpix.com

Florian Vermeersch of Lotto Soudal attempts to escape from a small helicopter during Paris-Roubaix Credit SWpix.com

Soudal makes adhesives. 300ml of its white Decorator’s Caulk will cost you just a quid from Homebase.

Mapei, a big name in cycling in the 1990s and early 2000s, is also well represented in your local DIY store thanks to a range that covers a similar area.

Oh, and vaguely related, there’s Quick-Step flooring, of course.

Groupama - FDJ

Lewis Askley of Team Groupama FDJ Credit SWpix.com_

Lewis Askley of Team Groupama FDJ Credit SWpix.com

The team run by double Paris-Roubaix winner Marc Madiot (far left, above) got a substantial cash injection for 2018 when French-based insurance company Groupama came on board as a sponsor

FDJ stands for Francaise des Jeux (which roughly translates as ‘French Games’) which is the operator of France's national lottery. No prizes for working out that Lotto of Lotto-Soudal is also a lottery.

Jumbo-Visma

Anna Henderson of Team Jumbo-Visma after taking a tumble in Paris-Roubaix Credit Dion Kerckhoffs:Cor Vos:SWpix.com_.JPG

Anna Henderson of Team Jumbo-Visma after taking a tumble in Paris-Roubaix Credit Dion Kerckhoffs/Cor Vos/SWpix.com

Jumbo is a supermarket chain in the Netherlands. Given the amount of food your typical pro cyclist inhales in a day, a supermarket is a logical sponsor for a racing team. French supermarket cooperative Systeme U sponsored a team back in the 1980s that included Tour de France winner Laurent Fignon, though Fignon's Systeme U era is best remembered for his losing the 1989 Tour de France to Greg Lemond by just eight seconds.

Visma is a Norwegian software company specialising in business, administration and government systems. As far as we can tell, that's exactly as boring as it sounds.

If you're looking at the team group photo and thinking "Blimey there's a lot of them", that's because the line-up includes the 11 speed skaters also supported by the same organisation. 

Astana-Premier Tech

Alexey Lutsenko of Astana-Premier Tech Credit Alex Broadway/SWpix.com

Alexey Lutsenko of Astana-Premier Tech Credit Alex Broadway/SWpix.com

Astana Pro Team is sponsored by a group of state-owned companies from Kazakhstan and is named after its capital city. Fun fact 1: Astana is the second coldest capital city in the world after Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, despite sitting at roughly the same latitude as London. True. You can impress your friends with that one, if your friends are easily impressed. Fun fact 2: The city is now called Nur-Sultan, having been renamed in 2019 in honour of Nursultan Abishuly Nazarbayev, president of Kazakhstan from 1990 to 2019. A fiver says it changes again if Nazarbayev's Nur Otan party ever loses power.

Premier Tech is a Canadian agricultural products and industrial solutions company.

Movistar

Movistar riders at the AJ Bell Tour of Britain - Credit SWpix.com_.JPG

Movistar riders at the AJ Bell Tour of Britain - Credit SWpix.com

This one is pretty well known; Movistar is a big Spanish mobile phone and broadband operator owned by Telefónica, the company behind O2.

Cofidis

Guardia Sanframondi of Cofidis swears it was THIS big at the Giro d'Italia - credit Miwa Iijima:Cor Vos:SWpix.com_.JPG

Guardia Sanframondi of Cofidis swears it was THIS big at the Giro d'Italia - credit Miwa Iijima:Cor Vos:SWpix.com

Cofidis is properly called Cofidis Solutions Crédits, and you don’t need to be fluent in French to work out that the company specialises in consumer credit. Finance is well represented in the pro peloton: AG2R La Mondiale provides life insurance and pensions while Caja Rural from the Caja Rural – Seguros RGA Pro Continental team is a Spanish bank, and Seguros RGA is one of its subsidiaries, in what we think is a ubique example of a team being sponsored by two bits of the same company.

DSM

Nicolas Roche (Credit: Cor Vos/ Team DSM)

Nicolas Roche (Credit: Cor Vos/ Team DSM)

DSM is a Netherlands-based multi-national chemical company. The TLA stands for Dutch State Mines because the firm started as a Government enterprise to mine coal in the Limburg region. Coal mining ceased there in 1973, but the name remains to acknowledge the company's origins.

Roompot-Charles

Roompot-Charles

Roompot-Charles

The team is no more, having folded at the end of 2019, but how could we not mention a squad called Roompot? Hailing from the Netherlands, Roompot Parks is another holiday park company, while Charles is a brand of charcuterie and salad products: sliced meats, bacon and like that.

Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. We send him off around the world to get all the news from launches and shows too. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.

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20 comments

Avatar
lesterama | 2 years ago
0 likes

CCC making a comeback? Or a recycled article not being updated? Come on road.cc, you can do better

Avatar
fenix replied to lesterama | 2 years ago
0 likes

They also swapped the Jumbo Visma photo out so now the comment about the team looking so big doesn't work as it's not a team photo.  Doh !

Avatar
mdavidford replied to lesterama | 2 years ago
2 likes

lesterama wrote:

Come on road.cc, you can do better

Are you new around here?

Avatar
Kapelmuur | 2 years ago
2 likes

I persuaded my daughter to specify Quick Step flooring for her new extension.

The first road bike I bought was a Carrera from Halfords in the mistaken belief that it was the brand ridden by Stephen Roche.

My reasons for buying a Trek bike are now too embarrassing to mention.

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fenix replied to Kapelmuur | 2 years ago
0 likes

We have had QS flooring for 20 years now - would recommend it any day. 

Blimey they have been in cycling a long time ! 

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albabairn | 4 years ago
0 likes

Except Astana is no longer name of Capital city. It's now Nur Sultan.

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Dingaling | 4 years ago
1 like

Well, you did by a flat with a top brand in taps. I visited the factory in Schiltach many years ago and was impressed with the range of processes. They made everything from raw materials, moulded their own plastic parts, cast and chromium plated the brass parts. Completely the opposite of most brands in cycling that just buy everything in and stick a name on it.

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matthewn5 | 4 years ago
0 likes

The flat I bought has Hansgrohe taps, and boy oh boy the spares are expensive. Happy to support a cycling team though ;-))

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abedfo | 4 years ago
0 likes

Was in B&Q the other day and found some soudal expanding foam-safe to say i didnt purchase it due to its high cost. 

Also there is a Deceuninck factory close to me in Calne, Wiltshire. 

Avatar
don simon fbpe | 6 years ago
1 like

Good business for building suppliers, plenty of jollies for the architects and consultants where they can meet the teams. It's not about awareness from the public, more about being able to wine and dine specifiers, they are worth more tha you or I.

Not bad for the sponsors themselves either as the marketing director for Movistar had signed pictures from sporting heroes, from all sorts of sporting disciplines all over his office. The odd VIP tickets came from there too.

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kil0ran | 6 years ago
0 likes

Just wish Soudal (or Lotto) would end their sponsorship so I could  buy the team kit, best one in the peloton to my eyes.

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Steve Cooper | 6 years ago
0 likes

I do my bit for the Lotto Soudal team by using their expanding foam filler.

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StewartM replied to Steve Cooper | 6 years ago
2 likes

Steve Cooper wrote:

I do my bit for the Lotto Soudal team by using their expanding foam filler.

 

Darn, I just bought some foam filler the other day and didn't think to look for Soudal brand. Would have been the closest I came to buying a pair of Hanseno shoes.

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Ratfink | 6 years ago
0 likes

It was a while before i found out Lotto wasn't the trainers i assumed it was.

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Simon E | 6 years ago
2 likes

Lampre is an Italian industrial firm supplying hot-rolled steel pre-coated with a PVC film, according to http://www.bikeraceinfo.com/riderhistories/sponsors-directory.html

U.S. Postal must have done well out of a certain Texan's Tour wins while  brands like Carrera jeans and Mercatone Uno, an Italian supermarket chain, have also become famous worldwide. I had never heard of HTC before they sponsored Cavendish & co. but would subsequently have considered that brand if I was in the market for a mobile phone. If I was buying an espresso machine Rocket would be the first brand I'd consider (although I can't even remember who they sponsored).
Vacansoleil is a holiday company while co-sponsor DCM soil company.

Companies come and go, just look at the rollercoaster of Vaughters' Slipstream / Garmin / Cannondale gang funding. Sunweb used to be Skil-Shimano, briefly 1t4i then Argos-Shimano and Giant-Alpecin.

Apparently the AnPost-Chain Reaction team run by Sean Kelly & Kurt Bogearts haven't been able to secure a title sponsor after the Irish postal service didn't renew for 2018 after 10 years of support. It will also no longer sponsor the Rás and the Rás na mBan.

More about sponsors by INRNG - http://inrng.com/2017/01/pro-team-sponsors-2017-world-tour/

Avatar
rowes | 6 years ago
0 likes

I went for a HTC phone a few years ago for obvious reasons.

Avatar
Rapha Nadal | 6 years ago
1 like

Those old Domo-Farm Frites Merckx bikes were things of beauty.

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nod | 6 years ago
0 likes

Apple drink... pink... 

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kil0ran | 6 years ago
2 likes

I've got a retro San Pellegrino shirt from Prendas and have taken to drinking their Limonata at my regular cafe stop so influence clearly continues long after the sponsorship ends. 

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arckuk | 6 years ago
9 likes

I like to kid myself that I'm predominantly immune to the pressures of advertising, but I took great delight earlier this year at buying some Soudal silicone seal earlier this year at Homebase. I think it might have been 50 p more than the other branded alternative, but it's what Andre Greipel would have wanted me to do. Having said that, I never felt good with Sky taking over my previous broadband supplier, and was happy to ditch them at the first opportunity. Perhaps it was just familiarity breeding contempt, but if given a choice, I'd definitely go for a Quick-Step floor.

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