The Luxembourg workforce Leopard TOGT is to disband, after failing to seek out sufficient further investment to upward push to the ProTeam stage.
“2023 has been the general season for Leopard TOGT Professional Biking. This determination comes after cautious attention by means of the workforce’s control after now not with the ability to in finding further price range to make the step as much as the UCI ProTeam stage,” a press free up mentioned.
The closure brings an finish to a 13-year run and, after the workforce merged with the Danish Riwal squad at first of this season, ends the latter workforce’s 15-year historical past.
Leopard TOGT had ambitions of stepping as much as the ProTeam stage for 2024 and scored a number of promising victories – the Olympias Excursion and Circuit des Ardennes with Mathias Bregnhøj however may now not in finding every other sponsor to take the plunge.
“We had nice hopes of discovering a 3rd giant sponsor. Perhaps from Denmark, because the recreation of biking has grown right here so much after the Excursion de France Grand Départ in Copenhagen, and naturally the 2 Danish Excursion de France wins of Jonas Vingegaard,” mentioned workforce CEO Mogens Tveskov.
“We was hoping to develop into a Danish-Luxembourgish stepping stone between the UCI Continental and UCI WorldTeam stage, however sadly there have been inadequate ends up in make this occur. This loss of price range is the only and most effective explanation why the workforce comes to a decision to step down and say the sector of biking farewell.”
Staff supervisor Markus Zingen, who were with the Leopard Continental workforce since its inception, mentioned, “It used to be in fact now not simple to mix two well-established groups into one, however we made it occur. Since day one, the Danish and the Luxembourgish core had been at the identical wavelength, which resulted in the superb season we had. We will be able to declare that the merger used to be an excessively nice luck, which made the verdict to tug the plug now not any more uncomplicated.”
Leopard started in 2011 when an actual property mogul from Luxembourg, Flavio Becca, employed Danish press officer for Bjarne Riis’ Saxo Financial institution workforce, Brian Nygaard, to release a brand new professional workforce. With Saxo Financial institution’s long run nonetheless in negotations, the workforce used to be ready to rent a formidable core of riders together with Andy and Fränk Schleck, Fabian Cancellara, Stuart O’Grady, and Jens Voigt. The control corporate used to be dubbed Leopard SA with Nygaard its basic supervisor for 2011. The workforce took over/merged with the RadioShack workforce for 2012, with Nygaard departing earlier than the season began.
Becca offered the workforce’s WorldTour licence to Trek in 2014, and the workforce went directly to develop into what’s now Lidl-Trek.
The organisation Leopard additionally began the Continental workforce in 2012, which endured via 2023.