Pro-continental team Team Reddit may be in for a crisis at their headquarters, as their mother company is looking to disallow the team in fear of losing their reputation.

Lately, Reddit has shut down many of their famous so-called subreddits, such as /r/watchpeopledie, in order to keep advertisers as well as investors interesting in cooperating with their brand. Allowing a crowdfunded cycling team they have no control over may therefore be a risk to their long-term strategy, as they have proven time and time again to want as much control as possible over their own content.

The news comes as the cycling team is on a wave of success. And many of those successes are thanks to the amazing work of their secondary leader, Marlen Zmorka and his time trial domestiques. Their first achievement lately was probably the most expected one, as Zmorka took home the Olympia's Tour trophy thanks to two amazing TT performances and his domestiques helping him to keep the losses on the TTT as low as possible. More surprising was his second place finish in the Tour of Denmark. This remarkable feat was achieved thanks to his teammates, who decided not to attempt to become the leader themselves but instead helped Zmorka to remain in the main peloton on its hilly stage. And lastly, the team shockingly won the Monterrey TTT, even though they were ranked very poorly on the bookies' charts. It must have something to do with their morale!

The results should mark them safe for avoiding relegation, as many other teams around their rank have been struggling lately. But their potential successes may not be over yet. Zmorka is currently preparing for the Celtic Chrono and Bayern Rundfahrt in August. Meanwhile the team's superstar, Alexey Lutsenko, has been preparing for the Tour of Beijing, which should start in about two weeks' time.

Therefore, their potential disbandment may come as a shock to most, as the cycling team has done nothing but putting Reddit on a good daylight. It is unknown if Reddit's manager Vien will now be interested in searching for sponsorships, or wishes to start a crowdfunding action in a different way. Reddit, as well as team manager Vien, refused to issue a statement on this matter for the time being.

Crowdfunded cycling Team Reddit's manager Vien has posted a statement about his potential upcoming legal issues on /r/TeamReddit.

The cycling team may not be allowed to continue under its name, as Reddit is not able to have any supervision on the team. Recent policy changes show that Reddit's owners do wish to have this control, and ban out subreddits that don't want to confide with the rules.

"We built this team as a community and it will always stay Reddit's team. Therefore, I have no interest in seeking for another name, as it will lose its significance. It's Team Reddit or no team at all"

Vien might be overestimating himself there. Reddit is a multibillion company. A cycling team with a 2,5 million budget may not even be noticable on the bigger scale.

Reddit is yet to publish a statement on this matter. Multiple attempts to reach them did not end in a response.

knockout wrote:
First r/soccerstreams and then r/TeamReddit?
RIP Reddit.

Team Reddit's future is still unclear. Despite rumours of Reddit being on the verge of banning their "uncontrollable" user-run cycling project, this reliable news source has found out a decision may be on hold because of Reddit's recent investor, Chinese government-owned Tencent.

Tencent showed no interest in cycling despite their $150 million investment already being made earlier this year. Its sudden statement may be the cause of Alexey Lutsenko's recent performances. The Kazakh millionaire smashed the competition in the Tour of Beijing, winning two hill-rated stages and finishing with both the race win and the points jersey. Lutsenko also kept up with his astonashing performances in PTHC, ending third with a stage win at the Balkans International. These reports reportedly grabbed the attemption of Tencent, who sees a business opportunity with the currently crowdfunded cycling team.

Apart from these results, the months have mostly been quiet. Reddit is safely mid-table and out of relegation worries. Promotion also seems impossible, leaving only Reddit's decision on a ban to question their appearance in the Pro Continental Tour next season.

Still, there are a lot more opportunities to create positive publicity. The Tour of America, Reddit's home race, is still to be ridden, as well as some opportunities for Lutsenko to drive up his already enormous wage at Besseges, San Sebastian, Milano-Torino and Japan.

Reddit's manager Vien still refuses to comment on this matter, being only willing to talk about the sporting part of the team. "Let's just have some fun for now and see how many wins we can still pick up"

The cycling team funded by users of internet forum Reddit has been shut down by its main company, Reddit Inc..

Reddit has already announced to ban all of these projects, citing the lack of control possible over them causing possible damage to their reputation in case of any abnormalities occuring. Despite of this, its users hoped for an exception in this case due to the great reputation and successes the team has enjoyed over the entire world in the last months.

Team Reddit ended up as tenth on the PCT ladder in their second season, surprising many teams including themselves who expected them to end up in the relagation battle. The main cause is an excellent run near the end of the season. Reddit beat the odds with an agressive Tour of America showing with two stage wins and a KoM jersey, taking revenge for last season's flop. Meanwhile the team's star Alexey Lutsenko continued his victory streak all up the the Clasica San Sebastian, only disappointing in the final race of the season falling outside of the top 5 in the Japan Cup.

Reddit manager Vien issued a statement on /r/TeamReddit: "Being the manager of this cycling team was a time of many ups and very little downs. A privilege all possible thanks to the help of so many of you. From Kip's stage win in Tachira last year to Meyer's first stage race win for us and the great run in the most recent Tour of America: Reddit has certainly won the hearts of many cycling fans and will hopefully become an inspiration for many other crowdfunded, fan-run sports teams in the future. We hope the next teams will treat our riders well, I know they're just a bunch of cyclists in a fantasy universe, but to me they became something special!"

The riders have already been told they will become free agents at the end of the season, and thus will have to find their luck elsewhere.