The future of British women’s UCI Continental team Pro-Noctis-200° Coffee-Hargreaves Contracting, was hanging in the balance until it took an unexpected turn when team manager Rick Lister reached out to Smurfit Westrock, a company he noticed on the side of a lorry. With a new deal secured, from January 1st 2025 the team will race under the name Smurfit Westrock Cycling Team, thanks to a three-year title sponsorship deal with the Irish packaging giant.
The Pro-Noctis-200° Coffee-Hargreaves Contracting team was struggling to find sponsorship for the 2025 season, with time running out before the end of August 2024. Lister had given the team a hard deadline, which naturally added pressure to secure sponsorship. “I’d given the riders a date of end of August that we needed something on the table by,” he said. “They needed to know because they would have to approach other teams if we weren’t going to run, and also the process for UCI registration isn’t long but there is a date when you have to make the payments by. You’ve got to have a bond in place by 1 November. This is the earliest I’ve had anything sorted ever, so it has taken the pressure off. I can now look to signing riders, now we’ve got a guarantee.”
Lister shared the unusual path to securing the sponsorship, telling Cycling Weekly, “When I’m driving around I see logos on vehicles and think I’ll give them a try. I jot these names down, find the email addresses, and I found the email for the CEO of Smurfit Westrock. Eventually, I got an email back from him, and it turned out he was a cyclist. It just dropped into the right person’s inbox. You’ve just got to get that right person.”
The sponsorship, announced on Tuesday, offers the team a much-needed boost following the loss of their previous title partner, Pro-Noctis. This deal provides security for the next three years and allows the team to focus on enhancing their international race calendar. “Not only will this sponsorship offer the athletes more progression opportunities with a bigger international race calendar, it will also give us much-needed security for the next three years,” Lister said. “The improved calendar will also help attract riders with international results.”
Despite the new backing, the riders will continue to race unpaid for now. Lister explained, “We’ve come through the UK domestic ranks, we’ve done our first year at UCI level, which was really tough. We haven’t raced on the continent as much as we’d like to have, but we’ve worked to the budget we have. The budget for next year is a lot better, so hopefully we’ll see more overseas racing.”
The new deal aims to make the team more competitive, particularly by bringing in riders with UCI points and a much-needed sprinter. “We’re looking now to bring in some riders, riders with UCI points, we need a sprinter that is a fact. Hopefully, the stability of the team will bring in some applications from high-level riders,” Lister noted.
The announcement came shortly after it was revealed that fellow British Continental team Lifeplus-Wahoo would close at the end of the season. Reflecting on this, Lister commented, “It’s really sad about Lifeplus, they’re a great team and we always looked up to them, and wanted to go down the route they went on. It’s sad for Bob, Tom, and the team there because they’ve been a fantastic team for many years. It’s a really hard landscape out there for teams to get sponsors. We’ve been really lucky, and it just seems like they’ve been mega unlucky.”
For Smurfit Westrock Cycling Team, the future looks promising, with Lister highlighting the relief and opportunity this sponsorship provides. “It gives us time to build up relationships with product sponsors. It’s really taken the pressure off us, and means we can concentrate on racing,” he added.
Main photo credit: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com
