Ireland’s first ever UCI Pro Continental team Aqua Blue Sport have announced that they will not be applying for a professional licence in 2019. The news was announced in a statement from the team on Twitter.
In the statement, they said that they found it “increasingly difficult to obtain race invitations and recognition from race organisers in how unique and how well supported our project should be.”
However, in the statement they also said that they are “not going to give up with our passion of becoming a sustainable cycling team and will continue to grow and develop our e-commerce platform to enable us to return to the road unshackled sometime in the future.”
The team was founded by businessman Rick Delaney and the project was based on a self-sustaining finance model, with revenue generated from an online cycling marketplace www.aquabluesport.com being used to fund the professional team.
2017 was their debut season and they took a number of impressive wins last year including a stage of the Tour de Suisse and the United States Road Race Championships with Larry Warbasse whilst Stefan Denifl won the Tour of Austria overall in addition to a stage of the Vuelta a España.
This season Lasse Norman Hansen won stages of the Herald Sun Tour and Danmark Rundt, with Adam Blythe winning Elfstedenronde and Conor Dunne taking the Irish Road Race title.
The team also cited a failed merger with another European team but that all negotiations have been terminated. Earlier this month, Aqua Blue Sport announced the acquisition of Sniper Cycling (Vérandas Willems–Crelan) but the Belgian team quickly denied that a deal had been agreed.
The statement from Aqua Blue Sport is as follows:
“Dear Supporters”
“Aqua Blue Sport will not apply for a UCI Professional Continental Licence for the 2019 season.”
“We, Aqua Blue Sport, started this project over two years ago with huge ambition, gusto and optimism that we could actually make a difference. This year we have found it increasingly difficult to obtain race invitations and recognition from race organisers in how unique and how well supported our project should be.”
“Aqua Blue Sport cycling team have been negotiating tirelessly with another Pro Continental team regarding an acquisition/partnership. Over the past weeks we had formed the basis of an agreement many times, but unfortunately common sense did not prevail. We believed on numerous occasions that the deal was so far advanced that it was a foregone conclusion that a partnership would be achieved. Today, August 27, 2018, we now find ourselves in a position where we can categorically state that all negotiations have been terminated.”
“We are extremely proud of our achievements over the past two seasons and made history in being Ireland’s first professional cycling team, first Irish team to participate in a Grand Tour and first Irish team to win a stage at a Grand Tour. We have had the pleasure of making many friends on the journey.
“I guess it’s fair to say that we have made some fundamental mistakes, and errors of judgement, ultimately bringing our ‘on road’ ambitions to an unfortunate end. We are, of course, not going to give up with our passion of becoming a sustainable cycling team and will continue to grow and develop our e-commerce platform to enable us to return to the road unshackled sometime in the future.
“We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of those who have supported both our e-commerce website and our cycling team.”
