After recently announcing that it will support Bahrain Victorious for 2027 and beyond, Factor Bikes is extending its presence in the pro peloton by becoming a title sponsor for Team Amani.
The team will be known as Team Amani Factor Racing from 2027 until the end of 2029, with Factor’s founder, Rob Gitelis, convinced the team can reach the highest levels of the women’s sport.
Factor and Amani have worked together for four years, but the new deal will not only include the bike brand in the team’s name, but also bring the team into Factor's performance programme, as they do with their other pro teams. As such, they will ride the company’s Ostro VAM and Ostro Gravel frames rolling on Black Inc wheels.
The partnership will include not only the Women’s Continental road team, but also their off-road programme and the Black Mamba Development squad.
Amani is a proudly African team, competing with a roster comprised entirely of women from the continent. While they’ve been around as a club-level team for a few years, they graduated to UCI level only at the start of the 2026 season.
During that time, they took three wins, all at fourth-tier .2 level races in Africa, though they showed real promise on European roads, especially at the Volta Ciclista Catalunya, where Haftu Eyerusalem Reda finished 20th in the general classification in the mountainous three-day race.
Despite their status as one of the youngest teams in the bunch, Amani have stated their ambition to ride the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in 2028. However, with UCI Regulations as they currently are, achieving that is likely to require the team to shift up a level from Women’s Continental to ProTeam to guarantee a start at the biggest race on the calendar.
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"Of everything we’re doing in racing, Amani is the project I feel most personally invested in," Gitelis said. "We’re back in the men’s WorldTour and expanding our racing programme, which is exciting, but I want to devote real time and resources to this over the next three years. I believe this team can compete at the sharp end of the women’s WorldTour with the right support, experience and time.
"Beyond racing, I believe the opportunities that it creates can change the lives of the women involved. That’s why Amani belongs within Factor Racing."
Mikel Delagrange, Amani’s founder, welcomed Factor’s extended commitment, saying: "What has impressed me most about Factor is that when they say they’re going to do something, they do it. Every commitment they’ve made to this team over the past four years has been planned carefully and delivered in full.
"That’s rare in this world, and it’s exactly what a team like ours needs. Taking on title sponsorship is the biggest step yet, and I trust it completely because I’ve seen how Factor works. We have a clear goal for 2028, and the right partner to help us get there."
The team recently recruited retired South African pro rider Ashleigh Moolman Pasio as General Manager, and with Factor on board, they have a stronger foundation on which to build.
A recent addition to the Cyclingnews staff, Owen Rogers is an experienced journalist, working as a freelancer covering the sport for various magazines and websites for more than 10 years.
Initially concentrating mainly on the women's sport, he has covered hundreds of race days on the ground and interviewed some of the sport's biggest names.
Living near Cambridge in the UK, when he's not working you'll find him either riding his bike or playing drums.
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