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Pro Cycling team will be named "BIKE AID" again in 2017

Wednesday, Dec 21, 2016 in Pro Cycling

The German based Pro Cycling team  can look back on its most successful season in 2016 and also make further important steps towards achieving its long-term goals.

For three years the team from Germany has now been on the road and already achieved considerable success in the years 2014 and 2015. Whether it is the win of the overall ranking in the UCI Africa tour by the Eritrean Mekseb Debesay, or a stage wins. But during the last 2016 season, the team made the biggest step in its development so far and has improved significantly in many areas.
 
In total 3 victories in the international calendar of the UCI, 11 podiums and further 42 placings under the top 10 made the season to an impressive one. One of the highlights was for sure the 2nd place of Meron Teshome on 11th stage of the Tour of Qinghai Lake (UCI 2.HC) or the seventh overall ranking of Nikodemus Holler at the Tour of China (UCI 2.1) who also won the KOM jersey at the An Post Ras – Tour of Ireland.
 
Even in national races, the team was dominant at every race in 2016 where it was at the start line, and the places on the podium were only decided with BIKE AID.  Only a victory was denied, as with Simon Nuber one of the outstanding crit-races was wearing a different jersey.
 
"Now, after two years of exploration, we were able to take a huge step and establish the team as such and develop it further. The core of the roster has now been found and, for 2017, the squad is being strengthened selectively and will be developed further", says Lutz Drehkopf - one of the sporting directors of the team.
 
The race calendar and the goals will be further refined and strengthened for 2017: "Our goal is to deliver another year like 2016, but with the goal that we can be more constantly among the top 5 in bunch sprints in category 1 or HC races " Lutz Drehkopf continues about the future of the team.
 
But there was also a lot of movement even off the road. With a lot of work the team management succeeded to enlarge and develop the base of partners in the way that the team will be named as only as BIKE AID again – without any other name. "It is our long-term goal to establish and a club based team in professional cycling, whose values ​​are not watered down by the names of sponsors where we are creating sustainable values with and  with which people can identify themselves", says Eric Haus , Chairman of BIKE AID eV.
 
In this case Football (soccer) is a good example, where a club always bears the club name even when sponsors spent much more money on sponsoring than in cycling. "We had a motivated partner with Stradalli, but their long-term goals was not consistent with our strategy, so we decided together to stick to our original orientation and thus to end the partnership by mutual agreement. We are extremely pleased that we have been able to convince existing partners, as well as new partners,  fromour long-term goals," said Eric Haus.
 
There are also decisive developments in the area of ​​the social project of BIKE AID Pro cycling team: "The sustainable development of African cycling and African riders plays a key role for us. In the past months, we have achieved a decisive conclusion, which will still move us very much in the future. More details will follow later", Eric Haus leaves open.