Cycling: The Stölting Service Group team will be dissolved at the end of the current year and will not continue to exist as a Continental racing team as planned. The team's main sponsor has now announced this sad news. In the future, one wants to continue to be involved in the area of sports promotion, but the focus should be on football and no longer on cycling.
After a year in the concert of the greats as the ProContinental Team, the story of Team Stölting ends. However, the news does not come as a complete surprise - the problems began at the end of last year when co-sponsor Cult Energy surprisingly withdrew, but the company from the Ruhr area decided to finance the racing team for 2016 on its own. In terms of sport, things went quite well, although of course it wasn't enough to place in the top positions in the big races.
In July it was then said that in 2017 they would take the step back and start as a Continental team - the financial burden was also too great for Stölting, who had to shoulder the high costs associated with a ProContinental racing team alone. But nothing will come of it either. According to manager Christian Große Keul, this would have been "economically simply unreasonable". In addition, the set marketing goals have been "fully achieved," said Große Keul to the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung.
However, it was important for the team management not to leave the drivers out in the rain. That's why they were informed at an early stage and many of them have already found a new sporting home. An amicable solution to the annulment was also found with the other professionals.
In the future, the Stölting Service Group does not want to completely withdraw from the area of sports promotion and sponsorship, but the focus should then be on football. However, one does not want to completely slam the door to the cycling stage, as Große Keul emphasizes: “However, there are no plans to return to this sport in the foreseeable future. If there is a good opportunity, I don't rule anything out. In any case, we now have the know-how and are always good for a surprise.”