Trek-Drops women’s team saved thanks to fundraising campaign

The Trek-Drops women’s team has been saved from closure after launching a fundraising campaign.

Earlier this year, team bosses announced that their new title sponsor for 2019 had pulled out at the last minute.

The team then launched an ambitious fundraising campaign in the hopes of raising £250,000 to stay on the road.

On Tuesday morning, Trek-Drops announced on Twitter that the team had been saved and that big team news would be announced later in the week.

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The team said: “We want to thank everyone that funded, shared and made noise about our recent crowd-funding campaign, the amount of love that we received was very humbling and meant so much to everyone involved in the team.

“We’re over the moon to say that through the crowd-funding campaign we achieved our goal of saving the team.

“This is down to the 199 crowd-fund backers who now form our new members’ club, private offline donations and some new team partners.

“The Drops team will continue to #ColourTheRoad in 2019. More team news to follow later this week.”

Through the fundraising campaign, the team have raised 10 per cent of their target, with 199 people donating a total of £25,312.

Last season, men’s WorldTour team EF Education First-Drapac were saved after launching a similar fundraising project when their title sponsor pulled out.

More than 4,000 people donated to help raise $500,000 (£390,000) and the publicity around the campaign also pulled in a new sponsor, saving the team.

The future of the Trek-Drops had been in doubt since July, when title sponsor Trek announced their intention to withdraw and establish their own women’s team linked with the men’s squad of the same name, Trek-Segafredo.

Trek-Drops is likely to be the UK’s only UCI women’s team in 2019 after the folding of Wiggle-High5, WNT-Rotor relocating to German and Storey Racing focusing on the domestic scene.