‘The speculation underlines the exciting reach of Red Bull. It will be great to engage with a new audience’
Ralph Denk leans back in his office chair at Bora-Hansgrohe’s headquarters in south Germany. Around him is a collection of Specialized bikes once used by his team.
‘I’ve collected one of these each year since forming the road team in 2007. That’s a long time leading a squad at this level but I’m super-motivated,’ he says. ‘Cycling – it’s 24/7. I’m 50 years old now but I’m driven by pushing things forward, by winning the Tour de France with Primož Roglič and Red Bull. Well, let’s see how far we can go.’
We’re going to need a bigger budget
Denk is founder and team manager of Germany’s only WorldTour team and, as the years have rolled by, has increasingly become the money man, charged with attracting much-needed sponsorship in a professional sport that lives and dies by sponsorship money.
‘Over 95% of our income comes from sponsors,’ Denk says. ‘The rest is participation fees and some merchandising, but that’s not a lot. Simply, you need ever greater budgets to compete. If you look back to strong German teams like
