BORA – hansgrohe is world class in the WorldTour and its own U19 team Auto Eder is top in Europe. The Tirol KTM Team is one of the best U23 development teams internationally. In order to close the gap between the juniors and the WorldTour, BORA – hansgrohe is now starting strategic partnerships with Tirol KTM and the German Lotto Kern-Haus team.

Ralph Denk, Teammanager of BORA – hansgrohe and the Tirol KTM Team. A long story. When the Tyrolean U23 project started in 2008, it bought time trial frames from Denk’s own brand RDR. Even later, there were always close contacts, a possible cooperation was not just an issue. It’s great that it worked out for the team’s 15th birthday. But somehow it also makes sense. Patrick Konrad, Gregor Mühlberger, Lukas Pöstlberger, Patrick Gamper and Marco Haller have already sweated in both jerseys. The highly talented ex-biathlete Florian Lipowitz is currently driving a few races for BORA hansgrohe as a stagiaire before he will be driving in the WT team from 2023. And the Tyrolean staff also makes a career in Denk’s team. Physio and “Superswanny” Ziga Slak changed two years ago and in January 2023 Jacques Horn will become the Head of Mechanics and Physios.

Thomas Pupp, Team Manager Tirol KTM Cycling Team – Ride with passion
“So not only does this partnership tell a strong and believable story, it is also a classic win-win situation. With the two young Austrians Marco Schrettl and Alexander Hajek, it starts small in 2023, but can probably be expanded if it is successful. And two more points are worth mentioning for me. Firstly, Ralph Denk deserves a lot of respect for his team’s rise to the top of the WorldTour and secondly, his attentive sense of good design, style and smart jerseys is exactly what we are looking for.“

Ralph Denk, Team Manager BORA – hansgrohe
“Since we don’t have our own U23 team, there was a gap in our system that we can now close with the partnerships with Tirol KTM and Lotto Kern-Haus. In the future, riders from our U19 team can, so to speak, make a stopover in the U23 category with one of the two teams before they switch to us on the WorldTour. Both teams have a very good and international racing program and a professional structure. We support with our own trainer, know-how and a few other things.”

Gerhard Kapeller, Managing Director Ride with passion
“We are proud that BORA-hansgrohe chose us as a strategic partner. Thus, for the first time in the history of our Tirol KTM team, after 15 years, there is a contractual cooperation with a WorldTour team, in which we retain our full independence. Both sides will benefit from this partnership, because two strong players meet here with the same goal: We want to do cycling at the highest level.”

Photo from left to right: Thomas Pupp, Ralph Denk and Floian Monreal, Team Manager Lotto Kernhaus
Credit: BORA

For questions: Thomas Pupp, 0043 664 3427909