Benefits of being pro - conti Europcar

specialgueststar

Someone made the point somewhere ( source forgotten) that Europcar going down to pro -conti may be a good thing as the smaller team can be more focused on races rather than spreading themselves too thinly.

I don't think you would bet against them getting a place at the Paris - Nice , Tour and Dauphine and probably Giro ?

What would be the benefits of staying world tour - and what is the difference in budgets/income

dish_dash

Top benefit of being in the World Tour is the automatic invite to the Tour right? As well as the two other GTs. And that seems to be what many sponsors seem to want.
But if you're a french team that issue is negated somewhat, esp if you've got some top riders. Cofidis tick along quite nicely at Pro-Conti right?
MTN arguably got shafted last year by not getting a Giro invite, though they did get Vuelta.

ozzzyosborn206

Guess it means they have less 'pull' for the big riders being pro conti as opposed to pro tour but as has been said being a french pro conti team they should have no issue with getting a ride at the tour, which is what all the sponsors want most, how many people outside of cycling take any notice of the other two gts

The_Boy

I agree that the extra costs and the need to spread your riders thin makes little sense for a small team like Europcar, but I seem to remember reading that the sponsors were keen on getting to the Vuelta.

ddraver

one of the reasons I ve heard the UCI may not deny Astana a WT place is that apparently there is no one willing to fill the spot.

it takes a lot of money to comply with all the WT regulations and a lot of European Teams can get as much exposure for their sponsors markets but spend far less money at Pro-Conti...