The Red Bull sports empire had already hinted at its appetites for the world of cycling. Wout Van Aert's millionaire helmet was a good example, among other small business ventures. But the definitive leap has come with the start of 2024 and threatens to shake up the status quo of a sport so in need of economic incentives. The energy drink company has entered the market with the acquisition of 51% of the structure of the BORA-hansgrohe team. An operation confirmed by the Austrian competition authority and which points to a large sponsorship, similar to the one it already undertakes with Formula 1, football and other individual athletes, also Spaniards such as Carlos Sainz, Marc Márquez or Queralt Castellet.
The details and intentions of Red Bull after taking over the majority of the shareholding (which belonged to RD pro Cycling GmbH) of the structure founded in 2009 by former German cyclist Ralph Denk (current general manager) under the name NetApp are not yet known. Whether the deal could turn the tide of the team or whether the merger would include a fresh cash injection. But, knowing the precedents in other sports - mainly Formula 1 and football with Leipzig and Salzburg - everything indicates that Bora, already one of the most interesting squads, could go one step further with Red Bull and place itself at the level of the most powerful by budget, in this order, Ineos Grenadiers (around €43 million), the UAE Team Emirates of Tadej Pogacar and Juan Ayuso and the new Visma-Lease a Bike (heir to Jonas Vingegaard's Jumbo Visma).
Anton Palzer
In reality, Red Bull was already working with Denk's Bora-hansgrohe team, backing its development team and supporting Anton Palzer, who made an unusual transition from the world's elite ski mountaineering to professional road cycling in 2021 in record time. It also individually sponsored Van Aert and his Lazer helmet, including Great Britain's Tom Pidcock (cyclocross and mountain bike only) and SD Worx rider Blanka Vas.
Although a priori it has nothing to do with the arrival of Red Bull, Bora had been the protagonist of the intense winter market in the world of cycling. The signing of Primoz Roglic from Jumbo on a multi-year contract had raised his ambitions for the Grand Tours, especially the Tour. The Slovenian joined other stars such as Aleksandr Vlasov, Dani Martinez, Jai Hindley, Sam Welsford, Lennard Kämna and Bob Jungels. It also has a Spaniard in its ranks, the young Catalan Roger Adrià. A few weeks ago, with some controversy, the German team lost one of its jewels, the Belgian Cian Uijtdebroeks, who headed to Visma-Lease a Bike despite having one more year on his contract.
The current budget of the German team is around 20 million euros, far from the top squads. Bora, whose sporting director is former German cyclist Rolf Aldag, did not have a particularly buoyant 2023. He achieved 23 victories, but no podiums in the majors (Hindley, who wore yellow during a stage, was seventh in the Tour, and Vlasov seventh in the Vuelta). Hindley himself achieved in 2022 the most important victory of the German team in recent times, the general classification of the Giro d'Italia.