A couple of months ago, we reported that the team managed by Patrick Lefevre would no longer be sponsored by Duvel. In a surprising turn of events, the team announced last evening, in a short press conference, with a limited number of attendees, that their project is moving out of Belgium for the first time in its existence.

Bonsucro, an international not for-profit, multi-stakeholder organization to promote sustainable sugar cane is the new sponsor for the cycling team which won its first Grand Tour earlier this year at the Giro. With the change in nationality, and focus, the management hinted at a change in direction towards rider recruitment and targets. Giro winner Sinha has a contract with the team for the next season but it remains to be seen what happens to the contract situation of other riders with this new development. A rumour about Tom Dumoulin not willing to continue riding for this team has been dong the rounds for the past couple of weeks. There is no concrete word on the situation from the rider's camp yet.

Although the sponsor is a British based organisation, it has a presence worldwide and the management has been encouraged to expand their horizons and bring in riders from across the globe. We tried to get statements from the riders about this announcement but the only answer we got was that they were happy that a quick resolution has been made.