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Cannondale-Drapac riders start looking for new Teams

Cannondale-Drapac faces an uncertain future, after a key sponsor backed out, leaving a $7million black hole

Rumors are Unibet, the online betting website that sponsored the team previously, was due to replace Cannondale. Management company Slipstream Sports will look for a new sponsor but leading riders could leave in the meantime.

Official statement read “On Saturday morning, Slipstream Sports notified all riders and staff of the uncertainty of our organization’s future. Yesterday management received some discouraging news about a new partner we anticipated joining us in 2018,” read a team statement. “Without this partner’s support, we cannot guarantee our financial and subsequently our UCI WorldTour license for 2017.”

“We remain hopeful that this situation may resolve itself in the next few days and that the team may find new financial backing; however, without this guarantee, we felt an obligation to the individuals who make up our team to notify them of our current situation and give them time to look for their best options.”

“All Slipstream Sports staff have been released from any and all contractual obligations for 2018. All 2018 contracts will be honored if our future is secured.”

A nine-man team is racing in the Vuelta a España at presen. A total of 28 riders could be out of work including 50 staff members.

“Hopefully we can make the best out of this here in the next two weeks,” Joe Dombrowski said. “We all race to win all the time but now it’s desperate times. I suppose we are now quite literally racing for our jobs. It’s stressful to me because I don’t know what’s that going to happen and others too because they have a home and a family. It could really hurt them."

It is so late in the year that if they don’t come up with an answer soon they’re going to lose a lot of riders because we cannot afford to wait around,” Dombrowski continued.

The team recently re-signed Rigoberto Urán, who placed second in the 2017 Tour de France. He has said he will wait up to two weeks to see if a new backer can be found before signing for a new team.

Crowdfunding Campaign Launched

The company has set up a webpage in which people who want to back it can register their interest.

However, few would take the decision to allow riders including Tour de France runner-up Rigoberto Uran, Classics specialist Sep Vanmarcke and Giro d’Italia and Tour de France stage winner Pierre Rolland to be free to seek alternative teams, as an encouraging sign.

Cannondale-Drapac riders start looking for new Teams