Cycling strike! Team Sky will dissolve after the 2019 campaign

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Sky, the most powerful team in the world of cycling has its days counted, and the news surprised their fans and the team members themselves

A few days ago, news perplexed those linked to the world of bicycles. This, after the owners of the television network Sky announced the withdrawal of sponsorship to their cycling team, a successful project wherever you look but which, even so, has announced the end of its history.

Leer en español: ¡Golpe al ciclismo! El team Sky se disolverá en 2019

The final date of what for many is the most important cycling team in history will be on December 31, 2019. The same squadron that costs almost 40 million dollars a year and won six of the last seven Tours of France.

Now, the question that surely arises in the fans of the discipline is: why such a large and successful institution ends overnight? And above all, what will be the future of their brokers?

A perfect team

First of all it is good to remember the successes that the Sky has had since its foundation, which, as the newspaper El Universal points out, dates back to 2009, when Dave Brailsford, a British pedaling master, won 14 medals in cycling of the Olympic Games in Beijing 2008, he signed the proposal to unleash this structure that led, from the track to the route, the technology of a team focused solely on winning the Tour de France.

From there, the legacy imposed by the Team Sky was more than memorable. Just three years after it was founded, the British Bradley Wiggins, the almighty track champion, was crowned in the 2012 Tour. Even while he had behind his back Chris Froome as the main fighting gregarious; who later became the maximum leader of the Team and winner of four Tours, a Giro d'Italia and a Tour of Spain.

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The reason for the disappearance

However, neither the lavish conquests of great returns, much less the fact of having become the master and master of discipline at the top of the hierarchy, were enough to put an end to the project, because the cessation of this story is already agreed and in March.

According to a publication of the newspaper El Espectador, the US global telecommunications giant, Comcast, which acquired 75% of its shares on October 8 and the control of satellite operator Sky, by tycoon Rupert Murdoch, for 39 billion dollars, He told the cast that it is enough to spend money.

And while that was the reason that came to light, continues El Espectador, one of the possible causes that led to the final decision of the new managers, was the diminished reputation of the team and the hostility generated at the highest level. This, in addition to the convergence of the International Cycling Union (UCI), the British Parliament, the majority of World Tour squads and the fans, especially in the wake of the Froome doping scandal, who, although we know that it came out clean, directly ended up taking Sky as a company, to be in the eye of the hurricane.

A light at the end of the tunnel

As expected, following the end of the project, nervousness reigned among the members of the campus, who worried about the situation echoed their dissatisfaction for having to work over a season without certainties of continuity. This situation led Brailsford, as indicated by Mundo Deportivo, to calm public spirits. The technician assured that everything is fine and payroll payments will be fulfilled throughout the year and that the search for a new commercial ally will begin.

"In this team, we have become experts in facing challenges and unexpected changes, and we have always shown a great capacity for recovery and calm to fight for victory in the face of adversity. And this is exactly what we are going to do here. We are determined to do everything in our power to turn the page, close the Sky chapter and open a new one with another partner to keep our incredible team together, "said Brailsford.

LatinAmerican Post | Freddy González

Translated from "¡Golpe al ciclismo! el team Sky se disolverá tras la campaña del 2019"