In 2008 the DFL-Cyclingnews team will become Pedaltech-Cyclingnews-Jako if the team is given a Continental Professional licence by the UCI.
The change in sponsorship marks the end of the involvement of Nick Collins and his Driving Force Logistics company but Collins has insisted to www.cyclingweekly.com that he is walking away with his head held high after seeing the team grow during its three years of activity.
However, he warns that the sport has to change if it is survive and attract new commercial sponsors.
?I gave myself three years to make the team a success and get some return for DFL and now the time has come to end it,? he told cyclingweekly.co.uk.
?I have enjoyed myself in the sport and met a lot of good people as well as bad, but that?s partly a reflection on life. I am totally pleased with what we have achieved over the last three years, because we have proved that being a British rider is not a genetic disadvantage against riders from other countries. I would like to thank the riders who have contributed towards the achievements of the team, and proved themselves to be elite athletes as well as sportsmen of the highest moral standards.?
?I would like to say though that as a businessman, and someone with common sense, I struggle to reconcile what is going on in the sport with commercial return. Clearly the sport is in a downward spiral and when I stepped away from it at the end of this season and looked back I saw what a total mess it is in. The recent loss of T-Mobile appears to have been shrugged off by the governing body of the sport but is really a major blow to the sport. The last remaining world brand has left. The withdrawal of DFL is quite insignificant compared to T-mobile but is indicative of a trend that needs to be faced up to.?
?I have no hard feelings with anyone I?ve been involved with in the team at all, but I just feel that top level road cycling at the moment is not a place where I want me or my company to be. Pro cycling is in crisis and bad governance, bad management, dirty money and fraud ultimately expose themselves on the road, and it is the riders who suffer.?
?I am withdrawing from the sport at elite level but will be supporting the development of young riders south-east England with some of the infrastructure the pro team had. Also, having been exposed to the sport at a higher level and understanding how it works both in terms of finance and the human aspect of managing it I do not rule out my return with British management, British riders and British sponsorship in the future, but the sport will have to change for me to do that.?
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