SD Worx takes over title sponsorship of Boels Dolmans through 2024

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Boels Dolmans announced on Wednesday that they have secured a four-year contract with a new title sponsor that will financially back the team through 2024. The payroll and human resources provider, SD Worx, will take over title sponsorship of the Dutch women’s team beginning in January of 2021 but will join the team as a co-sponsor this year.

"We are very proud to become the main sponsor of the world's best women’s team in cycling," said Kobe Verdonck, CEO SD Worx.

"This collaboration is a well-considered choice: women's cycling gets more and more attention. 

"Moreover, cycling is an extremely accessible and green sport, close to the people and internationally loved by a very wide audience. The team consists of top athletes of different nationalities. 

"We also see a lot of common ground with the values of SD Worx: diversity is high on our agenda, this international cycling team loves winning, just like we do, and does everything in its power to maintain the lead. Teamwork and strong individual performance are a must."

Boels Dolmans have been the most successful women’s team in recent history. They have been the number one women’s team in the world since 2015 and have won the elite women’s road race World Championships for four consecutive years: Lizzie Deignan (2015), Amalie Dideriksen (2016), Chantal Blaak (2017) and Anna van der Breggen (2018). 

Despite such success, the team announced that co-title sponsors Boels Rental and Dolmans would not renew their contracts with the team beyond 2020. The announcement was made at the 2019 UCI Road World Championships in Yorkshire.

"The fact that within a few months we managed to capture such a great main sponsor for no less than four years, proves that we have done a good job in recent years," General Team Manager Erwin Janssen said in a press release.

"We believe it is important to maintain an independent women's team at the highest level. As one of the few top teams, we are not affiliated with a men's WorldTour formation, which means that our attention is entirely on the women's team. With this focus we think we have a head start on other teams. The investment of a successful company such as SD Worx also proves that women's cycling has gained enormous popularity in recent years."

In Yorkshire, Boels Rental and Dolmans told the press that they were proud of what they had achieved with the team and that they had met their objectives. 

"I am happy that our current sponsor Boels Rental and Dolmans Landscaping Group had the class to indicate early that they would stop the sponsorship," team manager Danny Stam said. 

"That has given us the opportunity to find this new sponsor. The enthusiasm of SD Worx is unprecedented and has an enormous motivating effect on everyone within the team. It is a great advantage that we already know that our future is guaranteed up to and including 2024. We can now start building the team of the future and take the necessary steps again."  

Stam told Cyclingnews last week that he had set an April deadline to find new financial backers but that he didn’t think he needed to wait that long before making an announcement.

Even though they were the number one ranked team in the world for a fifth consecutive season, the team did not secure a new top-tier WorldTeam licence from the UCI because it could not guarantee four years of sponsorship at the time of the application. The team is currently racing with a second-tier Continental licence in 2020.

In his sponsorship search, Stam insisted that he did not want to partner with a men’s WorldTour outfit, despite rumours of a potential Jumbo-Visma merger. He told Cyclingnews that the team has thrived as an independent women’s programme and he wanted the team’s sole focus to remain in women’s cycling.

"Of course it’s nice when you can relay on a men’s team, but we prefer to stay independent and focus only on a women’s team, and give them the full priority to focus on their sport."