Cult Energy team saved thanks to new sponsor Stölting Group

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The future of the Cult Energy Professional Continental team has been secured after the Danish squad announced new sponsorship from German company Stölting Group, which has sponsored a Continental team in 2015. The two teams will join forces, creating the budget to ensure the team has a place in the Professional Continental ranks in 2016.

The new Danish-registered team will be called Cult Energy-Stölting Group, with an agreement for three years, and hopes to ride a Grand Tour in the future. Some of the young German riders at Team Stölting will be part of the squad but, when announcing the agreement, team management said that it was too early to understand the final roster for 2016. The team’s current line-up includes Britain’s Russell Downing, Linus Gerdemann, Fabian Wegmann and talented Danish riders such as Rasmus Quaade and Rasmus Guldhammer, who was fourth overall in the recent Tour of Denmark.

The Stölting Group specialises in cleaning, security and human resources, and is based in Gelsenkirchen. Originally founded in 1899 as a window cleaning business, Stölting Group now has 5,000 employees in Germany. The resurgence of interest in professional cycling in Germany appears to have helped bring the two teams together. This year the Giant-Alpecin WorldTour team is registered in Germany thanks to new sponsorship from Alpecin and the success of German riders such as Marcel Kittel and John Degenkolb.

“This is a big day for us and I’m proud to let you all know that with this agreement, we will continue having a strong team in the years to come at Pro Continental level,” directeur sportif Michael Skelde said in a special press conference in Denmark announcing the news.

“It has been more than a hectic year. Besides running the team and participating in races, we have been looking for and negotiating with potential sponsors since we started the project in the Autumn of 2014. With Stölting we have come to a solid agreement running for the next three years. Stölting have been in cycling for several years and the mutual understanding is a solid foundation for everyone within the team and the long-term agreement allows us to finally fully concentrate on making results on the road.”