Pro Team Sponsors Explained

The annual look at pro team sponsors and what they do. Many of the sponsors are the same as last year but their situation has changed.

UAE Team Emirates-XRG
Presented in order of team numbers at the Tour, this is also the richest. The team is backed by the United Arab Emirates, the petrostate that includes the cities of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Emirates is also the name of the state airline and the team uses its logo. New for 2025 is XRG which is a gas and chemicals company, a subsidiary of ADNOC, the state oil company majority owned the ruling family, so the blend of state and royalty again. It’s trying to buy Australia’s Santos at the moment, the Tour Down Under Sponsor.

A lot of the other sponsors like G42 have links to Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the prince also known as “TBZ”. Keen on sports, especially martial arts but known to cycle too, he is the country’s spy chief and a corporate kingpin whose business interests include Colnago.

Team Visma-Lease a Bike
Visma does cloud-based accounting, invoice and payroll software. It started sponsoring the team because it provided services to Dutch supermarket Jumbo, the team’s previous sponsor and a connection was made. It’s a Norwegian company owned by private equity but this is changing with the company due to float on the London Stock Exchange. Will this change of ownership bring a change of marketing priorities? Time will tell.

Lease-a-Bike is a small venture owned by PON, a Dutch conglomerate that also owns Cervélo and other bike brands. The idea is a service to offer companies where bikes can be leased to employees.

Soudal-Quickstep
Soudal makes adhesives and other chemical products for construction and DIY, think tubes of silicone sealant and more. Founded and owned by Belgium’s Vic Swerts, it’s both a corporate marketing project but also fun for Swerts who gets to have Remco Evenepoel ride for him (for now), even if he’s not on the phone calling the shots and is just a sponsor. It’s also both a Belgian company but with global sales including India.

Quick-Step makes laminated flooring. It seems as Belgian as Brel but is in fact a US company these days, at least owned by Mohawk. It’s enduring, many just call the team “Quick Step”. There’s gossip that the name could return as the main sponsor. Both sponsors can work together, you can lay down some Quick-Step flooring and then finish with skirting boards glued with Soudal.

The team has changed in recent years to back Evenepoel but has been caught between two stools, unable to afford the enough help but at the expense of cutting back elsewhere to the point where they struggled to get noticed in the cobbled classics.

EF Education-Easypost
EF Education is language and study-abroad business that was started in Sweden and now HQ’d in Switzerland. This company is now the cycling team owner. EF Education First sounds like a pleonasm but loyal readers will know the initials EF actually stand for Europeiska Ferieskolan, Swedish for “European Holiday Schools” because this is what the founder Bertil Hult named his venture. The Hult family take an active role in the team. One small detail is that the corporate branding isn’t pink, this is the team’s choice to be more visible.

Easypost is an e-commerce platform to help ship small goods and packets, offering software to embed in websites and help chose the best courier service. Confusingly across Europe there’s a company with the same name offering corporate mail shots.

Intermarché-Wanty
Intermarché is a French supermarket that also operates in Belgium and several other European countries from Portugal to Poland. It has a slightly unusual model with stores as franchises while the parent company owns several of its largest suppliers, including France’s largest fishing fleet.

The original deal saw the Belgian subsidiary back the team but now HQ is also helping with the sponsorship. Wanty is a Belgium civil engineering firm, think building bridges or specialist demolition projects.

The originality of the team is that it has grown out of a local club, the Vélo Club Ath. Starting with sponsorship from watch brand Rodania it has gradually risen up the amateur ranks, made it to the pro level, got an invite to the Tour de France in 2017, then promotion to the World Tour in 2021 and won its first Tour stage last summer. So far so good but the team accounts are full of red ink and pledges to cut costs, this is a team with issues over viability.

Bahrain-Victorious
An obvious one, this is the oil-rich island in the Middle East and various names on the jersey come from related industries like Bapco, the national oil firm. The key man behind the team is Sheikh Nasser, a sports-mad prince from the ruling family with business interests and the spy chief brief for the kingdom, much like his counterpart TBZ in the UAE.

The team burst onto the scene with a gold-plated squad but has not kept up with wage inflation in the peloton leaving them as a more opportunistic squad. The Victorious label is a brand, as seen on French and Spanish football jerseys. It is also code for “your name here” as the team might be sponsored by a wealthy nation state but there’s no unlimited credit line here. They are keen for a co-sponsor in order to bolster funding.

Ineos Grenadiers
Ineos is petrochemicals company. It’s grown so big that it now drills for oil and gas in order to get both its raw materials and the energy to power its chemical plants. It is owned by James “Jim” Ratcliffe, Britain’s third richest person. He’s not been a high profile figure but since becoming the minority owner of Manchester United football club that’s changed. It’s not been great news either with the team having avoided Premiership relegation.

Rising energy prices, interest rates and carbon pricing have caused a triple squeeze on Ineos and this is partly why it has cut back on sports spending. Ratcliffe is looking at selling French football club OGC Nice, has dropped sponsorship in rugby and reduced it in Formula 1. There have been concerns for the cycling team but Total Energies has just joined as a jersey sponsor which is a boost. The Grenadiers name is a side project for luxury 4×4 utility vehicle but despite this the team uses BMW team cars.

Red Bull-Bora-hanshgrohe
Austrian soft drinks maker Red Bull now owns the team with ambitions to grow it into a super team but it’s stumbled, for example paying a lot of money to hire Primož Roglič who, while charming, is hardly a talent for the future. But he’s helped the squad improve and lay foundations with whispers they’ll sign a rider whose anagram spells Rem Eco Envelope.

Bora make kitchen cookers and extractor fans with the selling point that the fan is mounted beside the cooker to suck fumes away and so gets rid of the need to have a large unit above although how effective this can be against rising columns of steam and smoke is an open question but proud users seem converted. Hansgrohe makes bathroom and kitchen equipment like mixers and showerheads and is separate from Grohe.

Lidl-Trek
Lidl is an disruptive German discount supermarket which has been expanding in Europe and now the US in recent years and grabbed significant market share. The arrival of this big public-facing multinational is a boost for the sport in general, a coup for the team and a rare consumer-facing team. It is sponsoring to put its brand in front of people. But there’s an internal angle too, staff can rally around their team in a way they would not if the supermarket backed a football team or a tennis tournament.

The team is owned and backed by the US bicycle brand Trek a rare “factory” team. The squad is now on the up and trying to make the top tier of pro teams with an increased budget and ambitions.

Groupama-FDJ
A 50-50 joint venture owned by the two title sponsors. Groupama is a giant mutual insurance company whose rural logo hints at the original name of Groupe des Assurances Mutuelles Agricoles, Groupe AMA… Groupama.

FDJ used to be La Française des Jeux, (think “French games”) it’s the French national lottery and now a privatised company that wants to run more lotteries and expanding into gambling across Europe, it now owns bookmaker Unibet and the company name is now FDJ United to evoke sports but also the brands under one umbrella.

Groupama’s corporate colour is green but as they get to go first on the team name they’ve accepted the blue kit and red kit. The team was founded by Marc Madiot and in his own words he’s gone from being a shopkeeper to run a multinational and these days he’s more a figurehead with Thierry Cornec being lined up to replace him.

Alpecin-Deceuninck
Alpecin is a shampoo brand from Germany with caffeine in it (reviewed on this blog) with claims this stimulates the scalp to prevent hair loss. Can they sign a bald rider? Oddly for a team out for exposure in France, the shampoo’s not for sale in supermarkets, nor the myriad of pharmacies.

Continuing the construction site theme among Belgian sponsors, Deceuninck is a Belgian maker of PVC windows and doors. The company has announced it will exit the team soon leaving them in search of a co-sponsor. Given the lack of panic it looks like they’ll be announcing a backer soon.

Tudor Pro Cycling Team
Tudor is a Swiss watch brand owned by the same company as Rolex. Tudor is positioned as more affordable and more active, and company is big in sports sponsorship. Many would think the watch business ought to have imploded given almost everyone carries a phone which tells the time but sales have boomed as they are signals, and even Veblen goods: why buy a $10 watch when you could spend $1,000? This still means they are discretionary items and sales volumes gyrate according to Asian growth rates or US tariffs.

The team has just signed a deal with MSC Cruises, the Swiss-Italian cruise ship operator which will help fund their ambitions. This is a ProTeam, the UCI’s confusing label for a second tier squad but it has a WorldTeam-like roster and should be a fixture in top tier races in the coming years, assuming watch sales hold up.

Team Jayco-Al Ula
Gerry Ryan worked as a manager for a caravan company and after a trip to a US supplier hit on the idea of a US-Australian joint-venture and today he and Jayco have become Australia’s biggest vehicle manufacturer. One of Australia’s wealthiest people he has since ventured into other things like winemaking and the “Walking with Dinosaurs” franchise which has made him richer still. Wealth has made him a benefactor of Australian sport and a patient supporter of the team, a “sugar daddy” putting millions of dollars a year into the squad of men and women, but appears to have turned sour recently as the team has just had a mid-season management change.

Al Ula is a Saudi tourist project designed to bring tourism, including cyclists, to the town of Al Ula, the place that also hosts the Saudi Tour bike race in February.

Arkéa-B&B Hotels
Au revoir or adieu? Both sponsors are leaving the team at the end of the season. Arkéa is French bank which belongs to the big Crédit Mutuel group – more of which soon – and operates across western France, in Brittany and around Bordeaux which explains why it also sponsors sailing and Bordeaux’s rugby team. B&B Hotels sounds like an oxymoron but it tells you plenty, a hotel that gives you a bed and then breakfast, it’s a functional chain of budget hotels expanding across Europe.

The sad news here is that there’s little chance of a replacement so the team looks set to stop, taking the women’s team and a development squad too and it all provides work for almost 150 people. But it’s also a case of creative destruction with the UCI’s relegation system weeding out a weak team that has struggled in the World Tour.

Movistar Team
Movistar is mobile telecoms operator that belongs to Spain’s Telefonica, it is a brand in Spain and Latin America. It is the oldest team here, visit their website and in footer is the copyright claim 1980-2025.

The news this year which has seemed under-reported is that the team has a new backer in EPS (Eastern Pacific Shipping, from Singapore) and its parent company Quantum Pacific, both involved in shipping and logistics. Quantum has bought 43% of Abarca Sports, the entity behind the Movistar team this gives the team more finances but so far it’s a quiet takeover, no new kit change or name changes.

Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale
Decathlon is a French sporting goods retailer and owns the team now. Operating out of retail warehouses it has outlets around the world, from Brazil to China and is now expanding India. Its signature is low prices but to the point of being questioned about work practices and suppliers making it not an easy choice if you want to find an ethically impeccable team.

The sponsor HQ is in Villeneuve-d’Ascq next to Lille meaning this is a home grand départ, of sorts as the team still has its service course near Grenoble in the Alps; there is speculation this could move but probably won’t as the team has a built up a core of riders living nearby and a model where its riders are encouraged to move there and have good weather and roads.

Ag2r La Mondiale is one of France’s largest social insurance companies allowing savers to take out life insurance, pension plans and additional healthcare cover. It’s been backing the team since 1998 and bought ownership of the team as condition of continued sponsorship a couple of years ago but as hinted at here before this is coming to an end with official confirmation that it will pass on ownership to Decathlon. The team is looking for a co-sponsor and hopes to announce something this month.

Cofidis
A real local team for the start, the sponsor is from Villeneuve-d’Ascq and the team HQ is just on the edge of Lille and trades on its Nordiste image. But it has no local riders at the Tour, it is a bunch of mercenaries.

Cofidis is a consumer credit company. It’s part of the big Crédit Mutuel group like Arkéa but this group has a labyrinth-like ownership structure and so no overlap or conflict of interest is apparent. Cofidis has been an exclusive title sponsor of the team since 1997 and had ups and downs from super team to doping scandals. It’s not flashy but that’s the point, the team are out to connect with a demographic who might suddenly need cash, the “struggler” or “battler” narrative fits the team’s relegation issues well, it is at risk of dropping out of the World Tour but if handled carefully this need not be disastrous. It’s a French team but the firm operates in many European countries which explains why it has a riders from Spain, Poland and is a Vuelta race sponsor too.

XDS-Astana
The Kazakh team now with headline sponsorship from XDS, a Chinese bike brand. XDS wants to become China’s version of Giant, a big player in the entire cycle industry from team-issue bikes to kids’ accessories and all in between. The team had been on the slide even if Mark Cavendish’s stage win masked this but the arrival of XDS saw the team go shopping for riders and it’s had plenty of results and placings which should help it stave off relegation. XDS has just signed up for three more years. It’ll be interesting to see where the team goes next in terms of recruitment and strategy.

The Kazakh part is Samruk, the national sovereign wealth fund and state operator of Air Astana, Kazpost, uranium miner Kazatomprom and other national companies from construction to oil.

Team TotalEnergies
The paradox of perhaps the weakest team in the race but backed by one of the biggest companies oil major TotalEnergies. The French company covers does oil and gas from exploration, extraction, pipelines, shipping, refinery, chemicals and retail. It got into cycling by accident when it acquired Direct Energie, an alternative electricity supplier in France and found it was sponsoring a cycling team. It’s kept it to help with the rebranding from Total to TotalEnergies and the sponsor does everything from service stations to lubricants, alternative energy to drilling for oil and gas.

This look set to change with the company set to spend more on cycling, becoming a main partner of the Tour de France next year and as mentioned above, a sponsor of the Ineos team. Total will back the French team for one more year but that looks like for the team from the Vendée region unless they can find replacement sponsors.

Team Picnic-PostNL
Picnic is a Dutch food retailer start-up that does home delivery, an online grocer and supermarket that is now expanding into France. PostNL is the Dutch postal service.

The team is also in a relegation pickle. On paper should have the quality to remain in the World Tour but we’ve been saying this for years and it’s struggled to secure points. This is a particular concern for a team backed by commercial firms here for publicity rather than hobby sponsors.

Israel-PremierTech
Another second-tier team this is owned by Israeli-Canadian real estate mogul Sylvan Adams, a keen cyclist and another sugar daddy sponsor. The Israel label is presumptuous, it’s Adams promoting his new country rather than the state as a sponsor but fraught because many can see this team through the prism of politics and war rather than just following it as a cycling team backed by a massive cycling fan. If it was labelled, say, the Adams Academy would it be different. Perhaps not because Adams is political, he’s invited various far right politicians from Europe to Jerusalem, he attended President Trump’s inauguration and recently called on the US President to bomb Iran.

Indeed the team regularly attracts protests and armed riot policeguard the team bus at the Tour. Away from the race team cars don’t have the Israel label and riders can train in plain clothes when this would be a sackable issue on other teams.

PremierTech sounds all fancy but it is a Canadian company that began digging peat and now mainly sells horticultural supplies, including in France too.

Lotto
Another second-tier team outside of the World Tour but a fixture in the sport. Another lottery operator too, this time in Belgium. With this state sponsorship comes comes politics that can stray into interference but mostly it’s benign, like a duty to recruit both from Flanders and Wallonia to bridge the national divides.

It’s been a team sponsor since the 1980s but as loyal readers will know by now, it’s got issues. It lost co-sponsor Dstny last year and now has Caps, a payment card for fuel at service stations, with its lower case logo prominent on the jersey but only as a friendly boost for a long term co-sponsor rather than a real co-sponsor.

The team needs more money to help fund the team’s return to the World Tour or it risks being squeezed. Could help be at hand? The Flanders team is going to stop soon and focus on supporting track cycling which in a 2+2=5 speculative sense could mean extra support.

Uno-X
A Norwegian retailer, a chain of service stations that is moving into charging stations, useful in Norway which has Europe’s highest rate of electric car use. Other names on the kit include Reitan and Rema-1000 but they’re all under the same corporate umbrella of Reitan, a Norwegian conglomerate that has business in Denmark too and runs a 7-Eleven franchise. One paradox is the more Jonas Vingegaard wins, the more Danes tune in and so they get more exposure.

For now the 27 rider roster is made up of Danes and Norwegians only; the women’s team is more international. Identifiably local teams are risky ventures because of the asymmetry where the talent pool has a self-imposed restriction, yet the best Danes and Norwegians are free to sign elsewhere. This can mean paying a premium for them. But so far the project is working, it’s a cohesive team worth of an invite and getting results.

Comment
There’s a broad mix, from companies looking for marketing and branding opportunities to hobbyists spending their millions like you might do with a fantasy team. In between there’s a lot of overlap, the Ineos brand is known now and while Soudal might be more familiar, the company president has fun too.

The involvement of some nations and companies is sometimes called “sportswashing” but this feels like an inadequate term. It implies that suds of money can be worked into a lather to cleanse away dirt. It does no such thing. A country infamous for dire human rights won’t atone for this by sponsoring a cycling team. A company with a catalogue of environmental pollution won’t absolve this by buying a football club. There is no laundry, it’s almost the opposite where sponsors with questions get a free ride, nobody interrogates them. Also one hypothesis is that sponsors looking for this kind of soft power reputational play can outbid companies with stricter marketing goals.

As said before here all pro teams are brittle. What might look a fixture today could vanish tomorrow. Remember how Jumbo-Visma almost vanished down the plughole just after they’d won all three grand tours in 2023? But as whole teams have become de facto franchises, the average age of a team in the Tour is well over 20 years old now.