British cycling team for sale

A British cycling team have literally put themselves up for sale in a bid to continue competing this season. Wearing cycling tops emblazoned with "for sale", Team Lacuna raced their first race earlier this month. Rob Orr and David Clarke formed the team in February, after the team Pedaltech-Cyclingnews-Jako, to which they had been signed, collapsed in mid-January.

With the team folding so close to the start of the season, the chances of finding another top-level team were remote, and so they set about forming their own team. "For Dave this was the second year in succession that a team had collapsed on the verge of the season, and so we felt we would be stronger if we stayed together," said Orr.

Orr , Clarke and colleagues Richard Williamson and Daniel Smith formed the team, now called Team Lacuna, which means literally team something missing. The team is racing in a temporary kit while it searches for sponsors and is targeting the Premier Calendar series, the UCI category races in Great Britain and some UCI races in Europe, although the team's racing will be limited by a current lack of major sponsors and the associated financial implications.

"The representation of our sponsors and partners is of the uppermost importance to Lacuna Cycle Sport and in creating a UK-based professional cycling team we are searching for partners and sponsors that hold the same ideals," said Orr on his quest for sponsorship.