Outwardly, the benefits of winning a race like the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift are clear. When Kasia Niewiadoma took the yellow jersey earlier this year, the Polish rider’s face on the top step of the podium was plastered over all major news outlets. The logos of her key sponsors, Canyon, Zwift and SRAM, were front and centre as cameras flashed and interviews were given – these brands were getting what they paid for in plenty of exposure. Behind closed doors, from a financial and sponsorship perspective, the impact of a Tour win is perhaps even greater.
As long-time Canyon//SRAM team manager Ronny Lauke explains, the interest in Neiwiadoma’s Tour win has been transformational for his team in terms of acquiring new sponsors and securing the future of the German squad.
“It was a new level of interest and curiosity of what we are doing, which was definitely a challenge for us to be on all those calls and answer media requests. But in the end it’s a feeling of overwhelming pride and it gives our team a lot of public credibility,” Lauke says. “The Tour de France is the strongest global brand in our sport and people can relate to the event at the highest level possible, which has made a huge difference on how the team is seen.”
Canyon//SRAM recently announced that they will have a new title sponsor for 2025 in Zondacrypto, one of Central and Eastern Europe’s largest regulated cryptocurrency exchange marketplaces. This is the first time that a cryptocurrency company has been involved in women’s cycling, though not the first time the sport has seen a crypto platform come on board as a sponsor. In 2022, men’s WorldTour team Qhubeka-NextHash was abandoned by its cryptocurrency sponsor and forced to use its bank guarantee to pay rider and staff wages after NextHash was unable to afford its side of the partnership. Lauke is adamant that his team’s deal with Zondacrypto will be a successful one, however.
“The financial demand and pressure is growing every year. We have strong and solid partners, but the levels that we are reaching, we had to seek additional support for additional income sources,” Lauke says. “We also had to identify potential companies that want an advertising platform, and see advertising value in being part of Canyon//SRAM. We started the conversation with Zondacrypto earlier this year and within the last 10 days it really accelerated and led to a contract for the coming three years. It’s…