Everyone who’s ever watched the Tour de France has had that moment of squinting at a jersey and asking, “What the heck is [insert sponsor name here]?”
Who knew that Cofidis sells short-term loans or that Visma designs business software?
Almost no one, until those names started flying up the Alps and plummeting down the Pyrénées.
And that’s exactly the point. From the pro racing’s earliest days, cycling teams have been rolling billboards, built to turn obscure companies into household names.
Despite decades of talk about reforming the business model, the sport pretty much remains the same: Slap your brand on a jersey, send it around the Tour de France for three weeks, and let the publicity work its magic.
Cycling has been powered by a wide spectrum of sponsors for more than a century, from familiar global brands to some fantastically strange and obscure.
Weird team sponsors might make for laughs today, but the riders wearing those kits raced — and won — with absolute seriousness.
It doesn’t take a Wall Street behemoth to win the yellow jersey.
Greg LeMond won his legendary comeback Tour in 1989 riding for ADR, a Belgian long-term car rental company.
Mario Cipollini sprinted to the 2002 road world title in his season with Acqua e Sapone, an Italian retailer of household and personal care products, and raced the next season in zebra stripes at Domina Vacanze, an Italian package-tour company.
In a sport as international as cycling, businesses large and small have thrown their money behind a team. Sometimes it’s for a generation, like Cofidis in the peloton since 1997, to teams that can rise and flame out within a season or two.
For the first time in decades, today’s team sponsor sheet reads more like a Fortune 500 roster than a collection of local sausage makers or Italian flooring suppliers.
Global brand names like Lidl, Red Bull, and Decathlon have entered the sport with the kind of marketing flex once reserved for football or Formula 1.
In light of all these wacky and wild traditions, we’ve compiled a list of the most interesting, controversial, and bizarre sponsors to ever emblazon a jersey.
Bad boys to keeping covered up
Rock Racing: The Naughty Aughts
The bad boys of the 2000s. This over-the-top team shamelessly flaunted Ed Hardy kits, limousines, podium girls, and ex-dopers. The fashion brand Rock and Republic Jeans quickly flamed out, just like the team. Think Festina or Gewiss-Ballan, but set in LA.
→ Notable result: Ex-Puerto scandal riders like Tyler Hamilton and Oscar Sevilla found a spot, and the team won a stage at the Amgen Tour of California in 2009 before closing at the end of that season.
Agritubel: Industrial tubing
What’s sexier than agricultural tubing? This French farm-equipment company specialized in metal tubing for cattle pens and milking cows, but somehow funded a team that raced three editions of the Tour de France. From Reynolds steel to Flandria’s machinery roots and Lampre’s metal factories, heavy industry has long powered some of cycling’s most iconic teams.
→ Notable result: Juan Miguel Mercado won Stage 9 of the 2006 Tour de France in Agritubel’s kit.
Tonton Tapis-GB: Mom-and-pop shops
This one-off sponsorship by a small French carpet brand (literally “Your Uncle’s Carpet”) sits in a long line of floor coverings, tiling, and carpet companies backing cycling. From giants like Mapei and Quick-Step to other backers like Ceramiche Panaria, Ariostea, and Fassa Bortolo, flooring and tile makers have kept the peloton covered.
→ Notable result: Roche won Setmana Catalana and Critérium International, and Jean-Claude Colotti was runner-up at Paris-Roubaix.
Jelly beans to ugly jeans
Jelly Belly: American dynasty
Who needs ketones when you have jelly beans? The popular sweets company powered the American pro squad for nearly two decades. Sweet-toothed sponsors have long been part of cycling, from Haribo to Suchard and Côte d’Or to Danone, and the iconic IJsboerke ice-cream team of Roger De Vlaeminck.
→ Notable result: Danny Van Haute’s Jelly Belly team (and other sponsor iterations) ran from 1999 to 2022, and won dozens of races with some of the biggest names in domestic road racing, including the U.S. national road title in 2013 with Freddy Rodríguez.
Carrera Jeans : Uglier the better
An Italian denim brand known for — eh-hem — really ugly racing bibs that looked like denim. These wacky kits lit up the peloton from 1984 to 1996 with some of the era’s most flamboyant and controversial riders, winning three grand tours, including Stephen Roche’s triple crown in 1987. Fashion and clothing brands have regularly tiptoed into cycling, from Hugo Boss and Columbia to Le Coq Sportif.
→ Notable result: Marco Pantani exploded to fame at Carrera, finishing third overall in the 1994 Giro and winning two mountain stages at the Tour de France.
Euskaltel-Euskadi : The orange tide
Technically not weird, but geographically unique. The regional Basque telecom backed the all-Basque roster, and passionate fans made the annual trek to turn the Pyrénées into a sea of orange. Telecom and communications giants have long backed the peloton, from T-Mobile to Telekom of Jan Ullrich fame to today’s Movistar.
→ Notable result: Roberto Laiseka won a stage in the 2001 Tour, and reports from the Basque Country suggest he hasn’t paid for a cerveza since then.
The Pope and the vegans
Amore e Vita : Love and life (and politics)
Love, life, and anti-abortion politics. Founded by a devout Catholic family, the team raced from 1990 to 2021, perhaps better known for its papal visits and conservative politics than its exploits on the road. A handful of teams have mixed politics and sponsorship, from government-backed teams like Astana, Bahrain, and Colombia-Coldeportes to today’s soon-to-be-rebranded Israel-Premier Tech.
→ Notable result: The tiny team eked out a few stage wins at the Giro over the years.
Motorola : Waiting for the next big US sponsor
Fans thought it was motor oil, not mobile phones. The team’s roots traced back to the historic 7-Eleven program, and under Motorola, it launched Lance Armstrong’s first big contract and suffered the tragic racing death of Fabio Casartelli in 1995 before disbanding in 1996. It was part of a long line of U.S. sponsors backing Europe-focused teams, from 7-Eleven and RadioShack to Saturn, U.S. Postal Service, and now Human Powered Health. The peloton is still waiting for the next major American company to step up. Hello, Jeff Bezos?
→ Notable result: Armstrong won the 1993 world championships and two Tour stages while racing at Motorola.
Linda McCartney Foods : Tasty while it lasted
A vegan revolution on wheels in the early 2000s, backed by Linda McCartney’s meat-free brand. Perhaps a bit ahead of its time, the underfunded and scrappy team raced four seasons before flaming out. From Danone yogurt to Celestial Seasonings tea to today’s Red Bull super team, cycling has long attracted alternative food and beverage sponsors.
→ Notable result: David McKenzie won a breakaway stage at the Giro d’Italia before its 2001 collapse.
Crypto, cops, and drones
ZondaCrypto: Bitcoin and bikes
Poland’s largest crypto exchange backed Canyon-SRAM in 2025. Cycling has seen a few crypto backers drift in and out, including Coinmerce and Nexthash, but how long before a heavyweight like Coinbase, eToro, or Binance finally discovers the peloton? Cycling needs those satoshi!
→ Notable result: The sponsorship backed Kasia Niewiadoma’s third at the 2025 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.
LA Sheriff: Police academy
Yes, the cops backed a cycling team in the 1990s. Cycling has seen its share of law-and-order backers, from Italy’s Fiamme Azzurre and Fiamme Oro police and prison-service squads to France’s Gendarmerie-linked development teams.
→ Notable result: The Chevrolet-LA Sheriff’s team featured future Olympic medalist Bobby Julich and Jeff Pierce, a Tour de France stage winner.
Drone Hopper : Savio’s last stand
Industrial drones might seem like an odd fit, but it was Gianni Savio’s last hurrah before retirement. The iconic Italian team manager kept his teams going by stitching together eclectic sponsors — from Androni Giocattoli and Sidermec to Diquigiovanni and Venezuela’s national backers — that resulted in jerseys that looked like the classified ads section. He died in 2024.
→ Notable result: Managed to secure a 2022 Giro d’Italia wildcard and hit multiple breakaways despite limited resources.
Illicit and inspirational
Z: Huge win, small backer
This small French children’s clothing brand somehow ended up backing Greg LeMond in his final Tour de France win in 1990. Dozens of small and mid-sized French companies over the decades have backed teams that went on to win the yellow jersey, like Pelforth-Sauvage-Lejeune taking Jan Janssen to victory in 1968 or La Vie Claire’s supermarket-backed superteam dominating the 1980s.
→ Notable result: Greg LeMond won his third and final yellow jersey riding for Z-Tomasso in 1990.
Novo Nordisk : Inspirational performance
An all-diabetic pro team backed by a global insulin giant is now on its 17th season in the peloton. From Phonak’s hearing aids to Amgen’s biotech backing of the Tour of California and insurance giants like AG2R or Navigators Insurance, medical and health-related companies have long backed cycling to promote their messages.
→ Notable result: Andrea Peron, racing with Type 1 diabetes, won the GP Kranj in 2022.
Club Diana/Sauna Diana: Cycling’s most notorious
This luxury sex club from the Netherlands sponsored an amateur team and even managed to sneak its branding into the pro peloton. Perhaps no other sponsor was as “naughty” as Club Diana, but there’s been plenty of vice in cycling’s history, with tobacco brands like R.J. Reynolds, booze-backed squads like St. Raphaël and Pelforth, and betting platforms like Unibet having all backed teams.
→ Notable result: Their double-decker team bus was loaned to TVM during the 1989 Giro, making it the most infamous vehicle in the race caravan.
Source URL: https://velo.outsideonline.com/road/road-culture/strangest-sponsors-pro-cycling-history/