Having followed the world of cycling with rapt interest for many years now, I was disappointed to see no teams in the lowest division of professional cycling from my adopted country of Netherlands at the end of 2016.

Around the same time, I became fast friends with two individuals I met at a local amateur race. One of them was previously associated with the management of a PCT team, and had left to take some time off. He was ready to get back to management and was waiting for a good offer to get started again. The other, while not associated to the cycling world previously, was an avid amateur cyclist and sport enthusiast from across the border. He was well connected in the sports management circles in his native country. After knowing them for a couple of weeks post the race, I felt that this would be a good opportunity to start our own team.

The search for sponsors was a tedious process but we were able to finalise them before the new season started. Presenting to you, our founding sponsors...

The search for our title sponsor ended in Amsterdam as we were able to convince the electronics giant Philips to come on board. They were impressed by our project to provide a platform for Dutch cyclists to take their first steps and beyond in the world of cycling. Our team would also be based out of Amsterdam, in the same neighbourhood as the Philips HQ. We hope that is just the start of a long and beautiful journey together.

Continental tyres is not new to the cycling world. Already supplying tyres to eight Pro-Tour cycling teams, Continental have taken the plunge to co-sponsor their own team in the cycling peloton. We were able to convince them to become involved in cycling more than just as tyre suppliers by showcasing our desire to promote, support and progress German cycling into the future. Their motto 'The Future in Motion' is apt for our set up too. It goes without saying that they will also be our tyre supplier.

For our debut year, we would like to build a good base of cyclists from our focus regions. Development of cycling in Netherlands and Germany, with the added goal of being competitive is our commandment for 2017. Having said that, both Philips and Continental are extremely successful international brands and have given us a combined target of recruiting at least three cyclists from countries outside our focus. As such, we will be keeping our eyes and ears open for promising cyclists from all over the world.

Credits to Krisa for this amazing jersey!

Race	Category	Goal	Result
Geraardsbergen-Bosberg	C2HC	Win	2nd
Benelux Challenge	C2HC	Top 5	3rd
Great Ocean Road Classic	C2HC	Top 5	18th
Euskal Bizikleta	C2	Top 10	6th
Team Standings	CT	Top 10	4th

*Green means Goal Achieved. Red means Goal Failed.

Start	End	Race	Category
10/1		Clasico San Cristobal	C2
22/1	31/1	Vuelta al Tachira	C2
31/1		Great Ocean Road Race	C2HC
4/2		Barcelona Classic	C2
8/2		Gent - Wevelgem	C1
16/2	20/2	Giro del Trentino	C2HC
21/2		Geraardsbergen-Bosberg	C2HC
25/2		Gisborne GP	C2HC
14/3	18/3	Bayern Rundfahrt	C2HC
25/3		Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kurne	C2
3/4		San Marino Hill Classic	C2
22/4	28/4	Tour de Langkawi	C2
5/5		Windhoek Classic	C2
7/5		Cacak Classic	C2
15/5	18/5	Euskal Bizikleta	C2
19/5	21/5	Tour du Faso	C2HC
22/5	27/5	Olympia's Tour	C1
2/6		Lillestrom GP	C2HC
4/6	8/6	Circulo de Juarez	C2
26/6	30/6	Tour d'Andorra	C2HC
1/7	8/7	Tour de San Luis	C2HC
15/7		Tour of the Battenkill	C2
18/7	22/7	Tour of Bulgaria	C2
3/8	8/8	Benelux Challenge	C2HC
20/8	21/8	Grands Prix Cyclistes	C2HC
1/9		Paris Tours	C2HC
1/9	8/9	Tour of Britain	C2HC
24/9		GP Yekaterinburg	C2
1/10		Colombian Venteaux	C2HC
5/9	9/9	Herald Sun Tour	C2
9/9	12/9	Course de Solidarnosc	C2HC
18/9		Zuri Metzgete	C2HC

*Races in bold are goal races.

One of the chief reasons to approach Philips to be our title sponsor was their previous engagement in the cycling world. Some of the long-time managers will remember them being a part of the peloton for three years, as title sponsors for the team managed by CrueTrue, the present manager of Orange-KLM. Their best ever finish was a commendable 5th place in the Pro-Tour in the 2010 season with two stage race wins along the way. Thomas Dekker was their star performer for the 2010 and 2011 seasons.

Here is a link where you can check all their previous achievements (Please check the 2007-2011 section): https://pcmdaily.com/forum/viewthread....st_1055893

With this pedigree, it was not a difficult choice. We hope that our partnership is a long and fruitful one, bringing Philips back to the higher echelons of professional cycling.

Unilever is a Dutch-British consumer goods company. Hindustan Unilever, their largest subsidiary, has huge operations in my home country. The company will make up for any budget deficiencies that we may face during the season.

A long-time admired company of mine, the particular lure of this company for us is their work in the interiors of India to provide an avenue for rural women to achieve self-employment and pull themselves and their future generations out of poverty. In support of their above mentioned 'Project Shakti' (which means Power in Hindi), Philips - Continental will be donating 1% of their winnings for the same. A very good incentive for us to win a lot!

All those pesky late night flights back from races and those tricky connections between stages need a special carrier support. We stopped our search when the German carrier accepted our request to come on board.

Insurance, that document everyone keeps but no one really likes talking about. The Dutch insurance company will be drawing up those documents which keep our cyclists protected in case of the inevitable injuries. Damn you gravity!

We have to keep our money somewhere. Not that we have a lot of it now, but we can't really carry it around with us in our pockets. ABN Amro has accepted to be our dependable partners ensuring that the cash flow will be as smooth as a baby's bottom during transfers.

Partners. Plural! Yes we pulled a coup here.

We did not expect the German car giant Audi to come on board initially, but they seemed to think we had a good idea, and who are we to argue against their judgement

VDL will be providing us with those behemoths that will serve as our team buses and will mostly be our homes during races. Need to tell them to fit in an extra long bed. I don't fit in most of them!

A part of Continental's agreement was to be our tyre supplier. This was a bonus meaning we had to search for one sponsor less. Their investment however was not enough to cover our bike frames.

This meant we had to scour the land again for someone to provide us with bike frames. We focused our search and came to Focus with our proposal. They liked the look of our focus regions and we moved on to focusing on other sponsors.

Luckily for us, we didn't need to head on down to America to get in touch with SRAM. Their European headquarters are nearby in Nijkerk and we knocked on their door with a sad puppy dog face and they took pity on us. Maybe we should try this during transfer season!

This is the only partnership where we were being selective. After talks with a couple of the big guns, we felt that we were not really getting what we were looking for. My partner from the cycling world suggested Biehler. It was love at first sight as we came across their hand-made jerseys. We really believe that we will stand out in the peloton with the jersey that is being planned.