Four years ago Bolton Equities Black Spoke started out as a form of cycling academy to help give Kiwi riders a leg up into bigger and better teams, next season they become one of those bigger and better teams joining the Pro Tour, the first New Zealand team to do so. “We’re now racing against the best riders in the world, every weekend, every week” says James Oram, one of the team’s original riders.
“Our races will be on TV, our friends and family can turn on the TV and watch us race [in Europe] which is huge.”
The Pro Tour is like the Formula Two of road cycling, it sits below UCI’s World Tour but allows teams to step up to the top tier through invitations to the world’s biggest events and Grand Tours.
Already the team has been invited to compete at January’s Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race in Geelong near Melbourne, the first time in history a Kiwi team will line up at a World Tour event.
It’s not just access to bigger races that comes with being one of 16 teams accepted onto the Pro Tour, from 12 riders this season they’re now required to employ 20 riders with a minimum season wage of $46,0000.
Scott Guyton, the team’s General Manager says it’s a huge step up in resource and investment with Black Spoke now effectively running a double programme with 10 staff, “we could be in two continents, racing two different teams” he adds.
Kiwi rich lister Murray Bolton […]
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