ENDURA Racing, the Scottish pro cycling outfit, will achieve pro-continental status for 2013, after a merger with German team NetApp was announced yesterday.
The move will put the Livingston-based team in prime position to gain wild- card entry to a grand tour, such as the Giro d'Italia or Vuelta a Espana next season, with a key goal to complete in the Tour de France within two years.
Joining forces with NetApp will see Endura's current £1.25m annual budget boosted to what is believed to be between £4.5m and £8m, allowing the amalgamated team to compete on a level playing field alongside existing pro-continental outfits such as Argos-Shimano, Europcar and Cofidis in the UCI Europe Tour. Likewise, it provides an opportunity to take on World Tour teams such as Sky, Garmin-Sharp and BMC Racing in the sport's biggest races.
Under the move, NetApp-Endura will be registered in Germany rather than Britain – a decision that is strategically designed to maximise the potential of gaining entry to cycling's grand tours.
Jim McFarlane, Endura's director, told Herald Sport: "There are no other German-registered UCI pro-continental or world tour teams. This will help us with gaining wild-card entry to the grand tours.
"It makes sense not least because, certainly in the foreseeable future, Team Sky casts a dark shadow. As a British registered team they would always get the invitations to the races we are interested in."
McFarlane added: "Team NetApp has already ridden their first grand tour [Giro d'Italia] and we should be able to expand upon that for 2013 and 2014."
Brian Smith, Endura's general manager added: "The step to pro-continental has been a goal since the team began. I'm disappointed not to be able to take all the riders with us but, when teams merge, you're always going to have to let some people go."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article