Saint Piran folds

And charging people £500 to apply to join the team, citing costs incurred having their data reviewed by someone who said he isn't involved? If I remember correctly. Sounds like complete s**ts to me.

The stories I've heard about dodgy dealing by them would back your assessment up.

I wonder how much of this is just general economics rather than anything cycling-specific. Sponsoring a cycling team has always struck me a likely a "vanity project" (and more recently, "sportswashing") rather than a serious money-making venture, notwithstanding that the long-standing sponsors at the top level must derive some benefit from it. Sky would be a good example, I think - it was just something to keep James Murdoch happy after he came off second/third best in the Murdoch offspring internal power struggle for positioning to replace Murdoch Senior should he actually die.

So in the 2010s, there would have been various UK-based cycling ventures that were marginal at best, even in an era of artificially low interest rates and low inflation. Throw in a few years of high inflation and a normalisation of interest rates, and the marginal projects become non-viable.

I don't keep count, but the Weekend Warrior scene in my part of the world - North Yorkshire - seems as active as ever, albeit with much more inside on smart trainers in bad weather than circa ten years ago. Bike shops and mechanics seem to still be doing OK.

If we take the rather mercenary view that benefit for a corporate organisation can only be measured via the bottom line, how do you think the cycling gig benefitted Sky?

I take a less mercenary view and think it was very good publicity.

It may be a vanity project in some ways, you could argue the same for ownership of a team in many sports. However, I think in owning a cycling team you are basically buying an advertising space either to directly advertise your company or to sell space to others. The profile of cycling in the UK rose massively back in the late 00s and early 10s with a few cyclists becoming household names and also with the boom in participation that possibly led to those in charge of purse strings seeing it as an opportunity for their marketing budgets. The thing is, on the domestic scene you are buying advertising space that hardly anyone gets to see and the visibility is decreasing with little to no coverage of domestic racing. In Saint Piran's case I doubt publicly criticising a 'business partner' would have helped. They also didn't have a business to promote as far as I'm aware (other than "Cornwall") and few / no sponsors so I'm not sure where their expected revenue was. Who would put money into sponsoring a domestic based team these days where there is virtually no publicity? Maybe a local business will chuck a couple of grand at a club where they have a connection and they can write a chunk of tax off but it really is effectively just a donation in the current climate.

Chapeau, great initiative, I really hope he/they succeed.

*I appreciate he clearly has some personal motivation for this as well.