Covid cost rise puts Canyon-dhb-Sungod future in doubt

Team manager tells Vern Pitt additional funds are needed to keep the squad at its current level

- Vern Pitt

One of Britain’s top teams could be forced to close if it doesn’t find more sponsors to cover the increased costs from Covid-19.

Canyon-dhb-Sungod has been one of the UK’s most successful teams in recent years and just wrapped up the Tour of Britain – the biggest race of the year for domestic teams – winning both the King of the Mountains and the sprints jerseys.

But with increased costs from racing in Europe, manager Tim Elverson has said he could struggle to fund the team in 2022. “Covid has brought in larger costs, travel is much, much more expensive, you have to put riders in hotels for longer because you have to bubble them. So the costs for a one-day race have nearly doubled,” he said.

“What I thought was a correct budget for this year has been massively impacted. And I’ve ended up personally filling the gap. I can’t do that next year. Therefore I need to find an additional sponsor to fill that gap.”

Elverson said that while his current sponsors were keen to continue he didn’t currently have the deals completed and there was no guarantee that they would be able to cover the additional cost.

He added that he could drop the team’s programme down to try and cut costs but he wasn’t interested in doing that. “I’m not prepared to be worse,” he said.