Professional cycling is an infamously cash-strapped sport. I think I read recently that one superstar basketballer in the US could very easily fund an entire World Tour team and have plenty left over. Even so, cycling teams are constantly looking for money and team names invariably change nearly every year…with some exceptions, including these guys.

And cycling has always had oddball sponsors because of this, including an online baby shop called ‘Baby-Dump’.

This year a few teams have added or changed sponsors. DSM has added the name Firmenich because it bought this old fragrance company, it seems. PostNL is also a sponsor this year – The Netherlands’ mailman.

Back to odd sponsors, everyone’s favorite caffeinated shampoo is still headlining MvP’s denim jersey.

And then of course you have an intriguing list of entire nations who have taken a keen interest in pro cycling – Bahrain (nominally constitutional monarchy), UAE (federation of 7 monarchies) and Astana (Kazakh stated-owned companies own this one: Freedom House rates Kazakhstan as ‘Not Free’.

Other sponsors include kitchen equipment suppliers (Bora), window and door manufacturer (Deceuninck), floors (Quick Step), supermarkets (Lidl, Intermarché) and national lotteries (FDJ).

My personal favorite for 2024 is Lease-a-Bike, which joins main sponsor Visma (business software), finally a sponsor that makes sense! Hopefully they have enough money to come back next year.