Sponsorships in Cycling - How The Biggest Brands Succeed
Published on
by Dominic Mills
Sponsoring brands have played a crucial role in professional cycling since its inception.
This article seeks to understand what methods sponsors are using in their partnerships with professional cycling teams and how it is still reaping rewards more than 125 years later.
In this Insight:
Professional cycling has one of the most unique sponsorship landscapes in all of sport.
Today, all professional sports are heavily influenced by commercial partners such as sponsors, but going back to the early 1900s and the beginning of modern sport, it was cycling that paved the way in this regard.
Professional cycling was born through sponsorship and investment from newspapers wanting to sell advertising space to manufacturers and bicycle manufacturers themselves who formed teams and put on races to show the public the benefits of the product.
This early connection between businesses and professional cycling has stood the test of time and is still to this day paramount to the sport’s success, with every men’s and women’s team on the WorldTour being named after one, or in most cases more than one brand.
With sponsorships having played such an integral part of cycling’s history and success, this article seeks to understand what methods sponsors are using in their partnerships with professional cycling teams and how it is still reaping rewards more than 125 years later.
Think Beyond Traditional
Two of the biggest drivers behind brands investing in sport sponsorship are reach and engagement. Sports teams and competitions attract followings that rival any entertainment offering in the world, with sponsors benefitting from placing their brand within tv broadcasts that evoke tribalistic engagement from local, domestic and international audiences on a mass scale.
Whilst some cycling races such as the Tour de France have consistently shown that the sport can attract global broadcast audiences that rival the world’s biggest sporting events, cycling, like most non-stadium sports, typically receives a smaller regular TV audience than more stadium-based sports, despite maintaining strong fan interest.
The most successful sponsors in cycling have identified this gap and diversified their approach to include a mix of channels. One of the most prominent of these channels is the riders themselves.
Major sponsors such as Specialized, MET and Alpecin have combined their sponsorship of WorldTour teams with strategic partnerships with cyclists. And with many of the world’s best cyclists amassing greater social media followings than the teams they ride for, it should come as no surprise that brands want to combine team sponsorship with athlete sponsorship.
Just as social media plays a crucial role for brands wanting to collaborate with riders, the brand’s own channels are also important. Many team title sponsors, such as INEOS Grenadiers, FDJ-Suez, and SD Worx Pro-Time invest significantly to create content that visually appeals to and engages their audience whilst also positioning their brand in a more organic way than sponsors from other sports.
Don’t Sleep on Participation Experiences
As well as their ability to provide brands with unparalleled reach and engagement, sport sponsorships are known for unlocking unique access to some of the greatest ‘I was there’ moments in history.
Here, professional cycling’s long history and tradition of closely collaborating with companies is significant. It allows for a more natural bond between the sponsoring brand and the team, often providing brands with tailored behind-the-scenes experiences that sponsorships in other sports don't offer.
This is a benefit that French environmental services provider Suez have recently utilised. As co-title sponsor of women’s WorldTour cycling team FDJ-Suez, the brand hosted a meet and greet with the team’s cyclists ahead of the 2025 Tour Down Under in Australia, where employees were given the opportunity to ask questions about teamwork, collaboration, resilience in adversity, and winning.
Lidl are another brand who have made the most of their sponsorships through in-person events and experiences. In 2024, the German supermarket brand became the name sponsor for the Lidl Deutschland Tour and organised a number of bespoke brand activities, including a 21 km employee ride, rider meet and greets, children’s play zones, and employee activities.
Put Sustainability in Focus
Cycling’s position as the most accessible and sustainable vehicle in the world has had a positive influence on how the sport of professional cycling is perceived. Professional cycling is often regarded as one of the most sustainable sports in the world, a perception that can be utilised to the advantage of sponsoring brands.
Major UCI WorldTour team sponsors such as UNO X Mobility and Suez have in recent years been praised for their sustainable commitments during the world’s biggest cycling race, the Tour de France.
In 2024, UNO X Mobility teamed up with Czech car manufacturer and Tour de France main sponsor Škoda to become the first professional cycling team to use all electric vehicles to accompany their team throughout the race.
French-based utility company Suez also utilised the power of sustainable messaging in their official partnership with Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, through their work with operating the event’s drinking water and waste management. This has seen Suez deliver valuable education to fans on water and waste practices as well as implement eco-friendly water materials.
Outside of the UCI WorldTour, Dutch cycling organisation BEAT Cycling Club has built their brand on both financial and environmental sustainability, making headlines and attracting sponsors wanting to be part of their story along the way.
"The whole principle of marginal gains came from the idea that if you broke down everything that could impact on a cycling performance — absolutely everything you could think of — and then you improved every little thing by 1%, when you clump it all together, you're going to get quite a significant increase in performance. So we set about looking at everything we could."
Sir David Brailsford, General Manager, INEOS Grenadiers
Leverage Innovation and Technology
Ever since cycling broke through as a professional sport in the late 19th century, it has been synonymous with innovation and excitement as riders, teams and sponsors continue to experiment with new ideas to deliver better bikes, fitter athletes and more advanced technology.
This quest for perfection has often seen professional cycling teams turn to businesses outside the world of cycling to create partnerships that go beyond conventional sponsorships and leverage ‘extra-sportif’ expertise and technology.
Few teams and their sponsors have done this better than the INEOS Grenadiers. Since their formation as Team Sky in 2010, the INEOS Grenadiers have championed constant innovation and technological advancement, most notably through their general manager Sir David Brailsford and his ‘Marginal Gains’ theory
Today, the INEOS Grenadiers have one of the most extensive partnership portfolios in professional cycling, working with brands that range from cycling specialists such as Pinarello, Gobik and Kask to companies like Garmin, Maurten and Built For Athletes - all centred around leveraging mutually beneficial expertise.
The Takeaway - Tailor Your Cycling Sponsorship Strategy
Professional cycling’s remarkably long history of closely collaborating with brands through meaningful partnerships and sponsorships gives it one of the most unique sponsorship landscapes in sport.
This unique commercial approach, combined with the high-value and engaged audience that modern cycling presents great opportunities for sponsoring brands.
However, some of the sport’s wider challenges, such as traditional media coverage, lower fan loyalty (compared to other team sports such as football) and the logistical issues of cycling require sponsoring brands to employ tailored strategies that adapt to the sport’s unique characteristics and challenges.
The brands who have adopted this approach have meaningfully resonated with cycling’s audience and seen great success.
Find out more about brand opportunities in cycling here or get in touch.
