Pro cycling has been mainly raced in trade teams since its early days – apart from a 30ish-year period when Tour de France organiser Henri Desgrange decided countries were the way forward – and fans of the sport have a vast knowledge of companies they have no idea about, apart from getting excited when spotting one in B&Q.

How much do you actually know about the brands whose names dominate the highest level of pro cycling? Who is funding the biggest riders on the biggest stages? Whose logos are being etched in history on the roadside, on the TV and in pictures?

We’ve used the wonders of the world wide web to figure out who the companies (and countries) behind the WorldTour teams are, what they do and who owns them.

AG2R-Citroën

Pauline Ballet

AG2R-Citroën began life in 1992 as Chazal-Vanille et MûreVetta and had a brief stint as Petit Casino before AG2R came on in 1997 and has stayed ever since, originally alongside Casino for three seasons then alone until 2021 when Citroën joined the fun.

AG2R La Mondiale is a French insurance and financial services company that operates worldwide, and is also France’s biggest pension provider. It was formed when the Paris-based AG2R Group merged with the Lille-based La Mondiale Group.

Citroën is a French car manufacturer founded in 1919 by André Citroën and is now part of the Stellantis NV corporation, which also comprises Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Jeep, Maserati, Opel, Peugeot, Vauxhall and more. Stellantis is a public company and its biggest shareholders are Exor (an Italian-run Dutch investment company that also has shares in Ferrari, Juventus FC and The Economist), the Peugeot family and Bpifrance (France’s public investment bank).

Alpecin-Deceuninck

Alpecin-Deceuninck

Multi-discipline team Alpecin-Deceuninck (with previous title sponsors BKCP, Powerplus, Corendon, Beobank, Circus and Fenix – who still sponsor the team) have been going since 2008 but actually only joined the WorldTour this season after the UCI’s new promotion/relegation system meant they breezed in off the back of big wins from Mathieu van der Poel, Jasper Philipsen and co.

If you watch cycling with adverts you know exactly what Alpecin is. A keen cycling sponsor with prior involvements with Giant-Alpecin and Katusha-Alpecin, Alpecin is a German shampoo brand that makes ‘caffeine shampoo’. It’s part of the Dr Wolff Group, which includes seven brands specialising in hair, dental and skincare.

Previous QuickStep sponsor Deceuninck is a Belgian window and door company that says it provides ‘a combination of sustainability, design and comfort’. Founded by the Deceuninck family from Flanders in 1937 as a small plastics producer, the Deceuninck NV group is listed on the Euronext Brussels stock exchange, with its main shareholders executive chairman Francis Jozef Willem van Eeckhout, vice-chairman Wilhelmus Hendrix and Frank Deceuninck with significant investment from various international asset management firms including Santander and BNP Paribas.

Arkéa-Samsic

James York

Another new entry to the WorldTour for 2023, Arkéa-Samsic are a French team from Brittany that have long been part of the furniture in big races as a ProTour team. They began life in 2005 as Bretagne-Jean Floc’h and have also had name sponsors from Armor Lux, Schuller, Séché Environnement, Fortuneo, Vital Concept and Oscaro.

Arkéa comes from the French banking group Crédit Mutuel Arkéa, with nearly 40 subsidiaries. The company was originally set up in 1911 by Breton landowners who wanted to invest in the local countryside and now includes banks, insurers, asset management, real estate, B2B services and more. It is part of the Crédit Mutuel group, which consists of a vast number of banks and financial services companies across the world. Cofidis is owned by another member of this group.

Samsic is a business services group that includes HR, facilities management, security and maintenance companies. It has subsidiaries worldwide and has been acquiring businesses to expand its repertoire since its creation in 1986. Samsic is also from Brittany and is the main sponsor of the Strade Rennais football team as well as a minor sponsor of the Lyon rugby team.

Astana Qazaqstan

Sprint via Astana Qazaqstan

Astana Qazaqstan were formed in 2007 after Astana initially stepped in as sponsor of the old Liberty Seguros-Würth team in 2006 following the Operación Puerto doping scandal. They were briefly co-sponsored by Premier Tech in 2021 but reverted to Astana as lone sponsor after Alexander Vinokourov rejoined as general manager. Mark Cavendish joined the team in 2023.

Named after the capital city of Kazakhstan, the team’s actual sponsor is called Samruk-Kazyna, which is Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund. Samruk-Kazyna’s portfolio consists of companies within Kazakhstan, including the national railway, postal service, oil and gas company, uranium company and airline.

Bahrain Victorious

Bahrain Victorious

Started in 2017 as Bahrain-Merida, they became Bahrain-McLaren in 2020 and Bahrain Victorious in 2021, funnily enough having most of their success once ‘Victorious’ was added to the name.

The team was created by the Sheikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, who is third in line to the throne and a senior member of the government, including leading the Royal Guard and Supreme Defence Council. Financial support comes from state-owned Bahrain Economic Development Board, Bapco (Bahrain Petroleum Company), Batelco (Bahrain Telecommunication Company), National Bank of Bahrain, Al Salam Bank and Alba (Aluminium Bahrain) as opposed to a sovereign wealth fund.

Bora-Hansgrohe

Bora-Hansgrohe

Ralph Denk’s Bora-Hansgrohe team started life in 2010 as Team NetApp and had spells with Endura and Argon-18 before they became the WorldTour staple of Bora-Hansgrohe in 2017. It’s a very German affair although their biggest successes have come from Slovakian Peter Sagan’s Tour de France green jersey and Paris-Roubaix wins in 2018 and Australian Jai Hindley’s Giro d’Italia victory in 2022.

Bora is a German manufacturer of cooking extractor systems that do away with hoods, taking vapours back down into the kitchen unit to either clean it or get rid of it.

Hansgrohe is a German manufacturer of sanitary fittings, ie, shower heads, hand showers and taps. It was founded in 1901 by Hans Grohe and is not to be confused with competitor Grohe, which was founded by Hans Grohe’s son. Bet their family Christmases were fun. Hansgrohe has two main shareholders: the family of Hans’ youngest son Klaus and Masco Corporation, an American conglomerate specialising in home improvement. Masco is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and was 413rd on the Fortune 500 last year.

Canyon-SRAM

Canyon-SRAM

One of the Women’s WorldTour’s biggest teams with probably the most recognisable sponsors in all of cycling, Canyon-SRAM (you’ll see it written as Canyon//SRAM but who uses slashes?) haven’t changed their name since they was founded in 2016 by former Velocio-SRAM team manager Ronny Lauke.

Canyon is one of the world’s biggest bike brands, the German company producing the popular Aeroad and Ultimate bikes, which are also ridden by Alpecin-Deceuninck, Fenix-Deceuninck and Movistar.

Chicago-based SRAM is one of the world’s two biggest component manufacturers, also owning RockShox, Truvativ, Zipp, Quarq, Time and Hammerhead.

Cofidis

Stuart Franklin/Getty Images

A stalwart of the peloton, French team Cofidis have always been Cofidis since starting in 1997.

Cofidis the company is a consumer loans company owned by Crédit Mutuel, which consists of a vast number of banks and financial services companies across the world, including Arkéa.

EF Education-EasyPost

EF Education-EasyPost

Jonathan Vaughters’ team have been going in various guises (barely keeping the same name for more than a season at a time) since 2003, when they were just a junior development team called 5280-Subaru. They went big time when Slipstream Sports took charge and Garmin became the main sponsor alongside Chipotle, Transitions, Cervélo, Barracuda, Sharp and Cannondale until 2016. EF Education First joined as the main sponsor from 2018 alongside Drapac and Cannondale before going it alone for two years, taking Nippo on board for 2021 and finally EasyPost from 2022.

EF Education First is a Swiss-based, Swedish-founded education company that provides language training, educational travel, exchange programmes and academic programmes, it’s also known in some Asian countries as English First.

EasyPost is an e-commerce software company that helps businesses use delivery services such as UPS, USPS and FedEx. The San Francisco-based company has 30 investors including Google Ventures, Ram Shriram (billionaire and one of Google’s first investors and board members), Ashton Kutcher and several venture capitalist and start-up investment firms.

EF Education-TIBCO-SVB

EF Education-TIBCO-SVB

EF joined Linda Jackson’s TIBCO-Silicon Valley Bank team at the start of 2022, aligning the operation with EF Education-EasyPost. They were initially founded in 2006 as PABW Powered by TIBCO before spells as Team TIBCO, Team TIBCO-To The Top and Team TIBCO-SVB before staying as TIBCO-Silicon Valley Bank from 2016-2021.

As stated above, EF Education First is an education company that provides language training, educational travel, exchange programmes and academic programmes.

TIBCO is a Palo Alto-based software company founded in 1997 that provides businesses with infrastructure software including business intelligence, data visualisation and analytics to help run their web services. It’s owned by Vista Equity Partners, which focusses on software, data and technology investments and is ranked 13th in Private Equity International’s ranking of the largest private equity firms in the world.

SVB is Silicon Valley Bank, the start-up lender that collapsed in March. The team have kept the sponsor and not commented on what that means for their future. Most of SVB’s business was bought by First Citizens Bank, with HSBC acquiring Silicon Valley Bank UK, meaning business has technically continued. First Citizens Bank is a North Carolina-based family-run company started in 1898.

FDJ-Suez

FDJ-Suez

Iconic French cycling sponsor FDJ joined the women’s team formerly known as Vienne Futuroscope and Poitou-Charentes.Futoroscope.86 in 2017, going five years as FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine-Futuroscope before Suez joined in 2022. Although the sponsor and aesthetic is slightly different, FDJ-Suez are joined with the Groupama-FDJ men’s team.

FDJ is Française des Jeux, France’s national lottery. It used to be state-owned but the French government sold off most of its shares in 2019. Despite that, the government is still the biggest shareholder, backed up by several investment firms including BlackRock and Vanguard, the world’s two biggest asset management firms, and the Norwegian state-owned Norges Bank.

Suez is not the canal, it’s a French utility company that works internationally mainly in water and waste management. Your local tip may be Suez-run. The company is listed on the Paris and Brussels Euronext exchanges and its biggest shareholders are infrastructure-focussed investment firms Meridiam and Global Infrastructure Partners.

Fenix-Deceuninck

Fenix-Deceuninck

Alpecin-Deceuninck’s women’s road team, Fenix-Deceuninck, was formed by the multi-discipline outfit in 2020 as Ciclismo Mundial and then Plantur-Pura, and joined the Women’s WorldTour in 2023 to complete the roster of teams for a promotion/relegation cycle. Fenix-Deceuninck riders still race under Alpecin-Deceuninck in cyclocross and mountain biking.

Fenix is a material for sinks and wall coverings developed by Italian manufacturer Arpa Industriale. Arpa specialises in producing high pressure laminate for interior design.

Previous QuickStep sponsor Deceuninck is a Belgian window and door company that says it provides ‘a combination of sustainability, design and comfort’. Founded by the Deceuninck family from Flanders in 1937 as a small plastics producer, the Deceuninck NV group is listed on the Euronext Brussels stock exchange with its main shareholders executive chairman Francis Jozef Willem van Eeckhout, vice-chairman Wilhelmus Hendrix and Frank Deceuninck, with significant investment from various international asset management firms including Santander and BNP Paribas.

Groupama-FDJ

Stuart Franklin/Getty Images

Marc Madiot’s team have been a mainstay in cycling since they began in 1997 and mostly have had just the one sponsor in FDJ, which was briefly joined by BigMat in 2012. Groupama has been on board since 2018.

Groupama is a French group of mutual insurance companies operating worldwide. Originally set up by farmers in 1840, the name stands for Groupe des Assurances Mutuelles Agricoles.

FDJ is Française des Jeux, France’s national lottery. It used to be state-owned but the French government sold off most of its shares in 2019. Despite that, the government is still the biggest shareholder, backed up by several investment firms including BlackRock and Vanguard, the world’s two biggest asset management firms, and the Norwegian state-owned Norges Bank.

Human Powered Health

Bart Hazen via Human Powered Health

Human Powered Health began life as Optum Pro Cycling in 2012 and spent a few years ‘powered by’ Kelly Benefit Strategies before becoming Rally Cycling in 2016 and Human Powered Health in 2022 when the women’s side stepped up to the WorldTour. Its men’s team is a ProTour squad.

Human Powered Health is a sports science company with physiologists that aim to help people become people improve athletically, putting customers through assessments before offering personalised recommendations on physical training, psychology, nutrition, equipment and recovery.

Ineos Grenadiers

Ineos Grenadiers

There are some people who still call Ineos Grenadiers ‘Team Sky’. Dave Brailsford’s British team was formed in 2009 with the aim of having a British Tour de France winner in five years, of course it was sooner than that as Bradley Wiggins won it in 2012. They became Team Ineos in 2019 and Ineos Grenadiers from the 2020 Tour de France.

Ineos was formed in 1992 as Inspec by Jim Ratcliffe, a former private equity group director, in order to buy out BP’s chemicals arm. Three years later when the company bought BP’s ethylene oxide and glycol businesses, and renamed as Inspec Ethylene Oxide Specialties, which became Ineos a few years after that.

The Ineos group now consists of 36 businesses in 29 countries, these include producing a wide range of plastics and chemicals for businesses, extracting oil and gas – including shale, which is extracted through fracking – a hygienics company started during Covid, the Belstaff clothing brand and producing the Ineos Grenadier. The Ineos Grenadier is a 4×4 off-road car designed to be a modern version of the original Land Rover Defender. It went into production in France in July 2022 and an electric version is said to start production in Austria in 2026. Ineos also has investments and sponsorships in Formula 1, sailing, rugby, running and football.

Intermarché-Circus-Wanty

Intermarché-Circus-Wanty

Intermarché-Circus-Wanty started life as Willems Verandas in 2008, Accent joined the Belgian team as a sponsor in 2011 before Wanty came in 2013 and Gobert in 2014 for an extended run as Wanty-Groupe Gobert. Short periods as Wanty-Gobert, Circus Wanty Gobert and a couple of years as Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux until 2023. They joined the WorldTour in 2021 when they bought the folded CCC team’s licence and also have the Tormans cyclocross team.

Intermarché is a French supermarket chain that you may have shopped in if you’ve holidayed in France, Belgium, Portugal or Poland. It’s part of the Les Mousquetaires group, which includes stores like the Bricomarché DIY shops and Netto discount supermarket.

Circus is a Belgian betting and casino company that also sponsors the Standard Liège and KAA Gent football teams and Circus Brussels basketball team. It’s also available in the Netherlands and Serbia, and has casinos in France.

Wanty is a Belgian construction and civil engineering company that’s been going since 1946. It does all sorts of public works including roadworks, demolition, sewage, waste, quarrying building construction and more.

Israel-Premier Tech-Roland

Israel-Premier Tech-Roland

Men’s team Israel-Premier Tech joined onto the Swiss Roland-Cogeas-Edelweiss Squad women’s team for the 2023 season, with Cogeas having been a title sponsor since the team’s inception in 2018. Mettler and Look joined as sponsors between 2018 and 2021 but stepped back as the team stepped up to the WorldTour.

The Israel sponsorship comes from the Israel Cycling Academy started by Israeli businessman Ron Baron and ex-pro Ran Margaliot, along with investment from Israeli-Canadian entrepreneur Sylvan Adams, to develop cycling in Israel. They formed the men’s team and then took over the women’s team this year. Baron made his money through investments and his asset management firm Baron Capital. Adams made his money as president and CEO of Iberville Developments, a large real estate company founded by his dad after escaping the Holocaust and moving to Canada in 1951.

Premier Tech is a Canadian company started in 1923 as a peat moss distributor that now works across horticulture, agriculture, life sciences, gardening, packaging, water and waste management, and manufacturing software.

Roland is a Swiss long-life baked goods company started by master baker Leopold Schöffler in 1939. It’s owned by French-speaking Swiss bakery group Cornu, which includes Roland, puff pastry snack manufacturer Cansimag and La Fabrique, and Swiss bread maker Holle.

Jayco-AlUla

Jayco-AlUla

Australia’s Team Sky, Jayco-AlUla have had a pretty good run since forming in 2011 as GreenEDGE Cycling. Orica also came on board from their first season for six years, Scott Sports for four, Mitchelton for three and BikeExchange for two before Jayco joined in 2022 and AlUla stepped up to title sponsor for the 2023 season.

Jayco is an American RV manufacturer started in 1968 by Lloyd and Bertha Bontrager (no relation to cycling’s Bontrager, we think). It was bought out in 2016 by fellow US RV manufacturer Thor Industries, which has acquired several other RV manufacturers over the years and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Jayco Australia is a franchise owned by Australian businessman Gerry Ryan, who is a part owner of the Jayco-AlUla team and also owns former sponsor Mitchelton. Ryan was the president of Cycling Australia in 2013 and also has financial interests in a rugby league team, Aussie Rules football team, basketball teams and racehorses.

The AlUla sponsor is the tourist board for the ancient city of Al-‘Ula in Saudi Arabia, which is packed with historic and archaeological sites, including UNESCO World Heritage Site Hegra. Experience AlUla, the tourist board, is run by the Royal Commission for Al-‘Ula, a Saudi Arabian government agency set up to preserve the city.

Jumbo-Visma

Giro d’Italia

Jumbo-Visma are one of the oldest teams in the modern peloton. Founded in 1984 as Kwantum-Decosol with most of the squad coming from the folded TI-Raleigh team, the multi-discipline and multi-sport (they also have a speed skating team) Dutch team have been at the top of the sport for decades and despite nearly folding in 2012, are back at the top. Having been around for so long, there have been many iterations, most not lasting very long, but most famously they were Rabobank from 1996 to 2012. The Jumbo-Visma women’s team launched in 2021.

Jumbo is a Dutch supermarket chain operating in the Netherlands and Belgium named after the African elephant that did the rounds in zoos and circuses in Europe and the United States in the 19th century. The company was founded by the Meurs family in 1979 and bought by the Van Eerd Group in 1983.

Visma is a Norwegian software provider, IT developer and consultancy founded in 1996 after three business merged. It operates across Europe and is mostly owned by private equity firm Hg, which is ranked 17th on Private Equity International’s 2022 ranking of the world’s biggest private equity firms. Visma is one of the firm’s biggest investments.

Liv Racing-TeqFind

Liv Racing-TeqFind

Liv Racing-Teqfind are one of the women’s peloton’s oldest teams, racing in different guises since 2005 when they began as DSB Bank. They had a spell with Rabobank as lead sponsor from 2012 to 2016 and Liv were co-sponsors for most of that before they departed together. Liv came back on board when they became CCC Liv in 2019 and the team have been Liv Racing since 2021, adding Xstra in 2022 and TeqFind for 2023. Over the years they’ve had a selection of cycling’s greatest riders including Marianne Vos, Annemiek van Vleuten and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot.

Liv Cycling is the women’s arm of Giant Bicycles, the world’s biggest bike manufacturer. Giant is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, with its biggest shareholder chairperson Bonnie Tu, and significant investment from asset management firms HSBC, GIC (run by the government of Singapore), Schroders (a London-based firm operating since 1800), Vanguard and BlackRock (the world’s two biggest firms).

TeqFind is a Dutch computer accessories shop, mainly selling wholesale, specialising in data storage products like memory cards and hard drives, but also offering things like electric scooters, phones and games consoles.

Movistar

Movistar

Spanish outfit Movistar are the oldest pro cycling team, having been racing since 1980 with ten years as Reynolds before 11 years as Banesto and a few as iBanesto.com before Illes Balears came aboard for three years. Caisse d’Epargne were sponsors from 2005 until 2010 when Movistar took over. Big names have included five-time Tour winner Miguel Induráin. The Movistar women’s team was formed in 2018.

Movistar is a Spanish telecoms company that provides mobile, landline and broadband in Spain and Spanish-speaking American countries. It’s part of the Telefónica group, which includes the Telefónica telecoms brand as well as Movistar, Virgin Media O2, O2 Germany, Vivo and Telxius. Telefónica was previously state-owned but is now fully listed on several stock exchanges. Its biggest shareholders are Spanish financial services companies BBVA and CaixaBank, Vanguard (the second biggest asset management firm in the world), Norges Bank (Norway’s central bank) and Amundi (one of Europe’s biggest asset management firms).

SD Worx

Veenendaal-Veenendaal

SD Worx are the team in women’s cycling right now, cleaning up in 2023 thanks to Demi Vollering, Lotte Kopecky, Lorena Wiebes and Marlen Reusser. The Dutch team have been racing – and winning – since 2010 when they were Dolmans-Landscaping and they had a long stint as Boels-Dolmans until 2021.

SD Worx the company is a Belgian HR services company operating across Europe. Its parent company is WorxInvest, which was started in 2018 as SD Worx’s investment arm, putting money into private equity funds as well as small- and medium-sized companies.

Soudal-QuickStep

Soudal-QuickStep

Started in 2003 from the ashes of Domo-Farm Frites and Mapei-QuickStep, Soudal-QuickStep are the traditional big daddies of the peloton. The Belgian team run by Patrick Lefevere have always kept the QuickStep sponsor, which has been joined over the years by Davitamon, Innergetic, Omega Pharma, Etixx, Deceuninck and now Soudal, who came over from the Lotto team.

Soudal is a Belgian building materials company founded in 1966 that specialises in producing silicone, caulks, polyurethane foams and adhesive for businesses, professionals and consumers, you’ll find its products in B&Q and the like. It’s still owned by company founder Vic Swerts. It’s technically part of the Soudal Group, with other brands in the group selling similar products worldwide.

QuickStep can also be found in B&Q but not in the same aisle. Founded in West Flanders in 1960, QuickStep is a floor manufacturer, producing laminate, vinyl and wood floors for households. It’s part of the Unilin Group, which consists of five divisions specialising in different areas of construction: floors (which includes – but isn’t limited to – QuickStep), wood panels, insulation, research and development and carpeting.

Team DSM

Team DSM

Team DSM are the Dutch-via–Germany team that’s been knocking around since 2005 under Shimano-Memory Corp, Skil Shimano, Argos-Shimano, Giant-Shimano, Giant-Alpecin and Sunweb before DSM took control in 2021. They stepped up to the WorldTour in 2013 as Argos-Shimano with the likes of Marcel Kittel, Tom Dumoulin, John Degenkolb and a young Warren Barguil. The women’s team have been going since 2011 under various similar guises, with two years as Liv-Plantur and four as Team Sunweb before aligning as Team DSM in 2021.

DSM is a health, nutrition and materials corporation that started life in 1902 as a state-owned coal mining company called Dutch State Mines. Within DSM there are businesses in animal nutrition, human nutrition, healthcare, pharmaceuticals and food and drinks. DSM merged with Swiss flavour and fragrance company Firmenich in May and is to become DSM-Firmenich, which the team is set to change its name to before the Tour de France. The company is listed on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange with the biggest shareholders the world’s largest asset management firms including Norges Bank (Norway’s central bank), Capital Group (one of the biggest and oldest firms), Artisan Partners (a listed American firm), Amundi (one of Europe’s biggest firms), Vanguard and BlackRock (the world’s two biggest firms).

Trek-Segafredo

Trek-Segafredo

Trek-Segafredo are the American team that started life in 2011 as Luxembourg outfit Leopard-Trek with Andy and Fränk Schleck and several other former Saxo Bank riders. They became RadioShack-Nissan, RadioShack-Nissan-Trek and RadioShack-Leopard before a couple of seasons as Trek Factory Racing and Trek-Segafredo from 2016. The women’s team are one of the peloton’s most formidable squads headlined by Lizzie Deignan, Elisa Longo Borghini, Ellen van Dijk and Elisa Balsamo, they began life in 2018 as Trek Factory Racing and joining as Trek-Segafredo the following season. The team name is rumoured to be changing to Lidl-Trek (as in the Germany discount supermarket chain) before the 2023 Tour de France.

Trek is one of the world’s biggest bike brands set up in 1975 as part of appliance distributor Roth Corporation by Dick Burke and Bevil Hogg, and began making steel touring bikes. Now Trek makes bikes across all genres including the Madone, Domane and Emonda road bikes, and owns the Bontrager components brand, Electra e-bikes and has cycling holiday company Trek Travel. Trek is still owned by Roth Distributing Co.

Segafredo Zanetti is an Italian coffee company that is sold and served across the world to businesses and consumers. It is part of the Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group owned by Massimo Zanetti, which through its subsidiaries, sources, processes, produces and pours coffee, and also has brands that sell other hot drinks.

UAE Team ADQ

UAE Team ADQ

UAE Team ADQ have been going since 2011, starting as Mcipollini-Giordana, adding Giambenini for a year before becoming Alé-Cipollini in 2014, adding Galassia to that for a year and then changing to Alé-BTC Ljubljana for 2020 and 2021 when they stepped up to the WorldTour. At the start of 2022 the UAE Team Emirates men’s team took over and rebranded the women’s team in their image with ADQ instead of Emirates.

UAE obviously refers to the United Arab Emirates, the country in the Middle East that took over UAE Team Emirates in 2017.

ADQ is an investment company owned by the government of Abu Dhabi set up to help the diversify the UAE’s income beyond oil.

UAE Team Emirates

Sprint Cycling Agency via UAE Team Emirates

UAE Team Emirates started life all the way back in 1999, they were the Lampre team from then until 2017 when UAE took over. While they were Lampre they had a few co-sponsors over the years in Daikin, Caffita, Fondital, NGC, Farnese Vini, ISD and Merida. These days, they’re the team of Tadej Pogačar.

As mentioned above, UAE refers to the United Arab Emirates, the country in the Middle East.

Emirates is the Dubai-based airline that’s part of The Emirates Group, which owned by the Investment Corporation of Dubai, the government of Dubai’s sovereign wealth fund.

Uno-X

Gaetan Flamme via Uno-X

Uno-X Pro Cycling are a men’s and women’s team, although the the men aren’t in the WorldTour. They’re a Norwegian team that started in 2010 but the women only got going in 2022 and went straight into the sport’s top level. The team includes British trio Joss Lowden, Elinor Barker and Hannah Barnes.

Uno-X Mobility is a fuel station chain that operates in Norway and Denmark and includes ultra-fast electric vehicle charging and a car wash. It’s part of Reitan Retail, which is the retail arm of the Reitan conglomerate, with other businesses in the group a property company and an investment company. Retain Retail includes 7-Eleven and Uno-X joined the group in 2006 when Reitan bought Hydro Texaco in Norway and Denmark. Reitan is still run by the Reitan family who started the company in 1948. Odd Reitan, the son of founder Ole, is the chair, CEO and owner of Reitan.

Tags: AG2R-CitroënBahrain VictoriousBora-HansgroheCanyon-SRAMEF Education-EasyPostGroupama-FDJIneos GrenadiersIntermarché-Wanty GobertIsrael-Premier TechJayco-AlUlaJumbo-VismaMovistarSD WorxSoudal-QuickStepTeam DSMTrek-SegafredoUAE Team Emirates