News – New Sponsor for NFTO

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New sponsorship for NFTO from Aberdeen Asset Management helping the team on the road to achieving the goal of going ProConti in 2016

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News – New Sponsor for NFTO

Aberdeen Asset Management teams up with NFTO

The team that beat Team Sky to the top prize in RideLondon, has a new sponsor, leading global investment management company Aberdeen Asset Management.

On Friday, with Matt Stephens as the ‘compare’ guiding proceedings along, NFTO team boss John Wood and Martin Gilbert, chief executive at Aberdeen Asset Management, along with two of the star riders, Steele Von Hoff and Eddie Dunbar, were joined by a select group of invited journalists at the headquarters of Aberdeen in London to announce the sponsorship of the team for the next three years.

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Aberdeen will become the main jersey sponsor of NFTO. The three year partnership is aimed at helping the team fulfil its ambition of being the next UK team to compete at the UCI Pro-Continental level. Aberdeen will use the partnership to increase the awareness of its brand and engage stakeholders via a number of events to get a taste of what it’s like to race in a professional cycling team.

NFTO was ranked the number one team in the UK at the end of the 2014 season and has already this year won one of the two major events held so far, the Chorley Grand Prix, with Ian Bibby.

Next month’s inaugural Tour of Yorkshire is the first race in which NFTO will compete as part of the partnership, with the team set to race in the Tour of Britain and the Tour Series amongst others, most of which will be aired on free to air TV (ITV4).

The day in London saw the two riders Von Hoff and Dunbar, wearing the new kit and being taken around London before heading to the rooftop of the new sponsors building and some photos there with John Wood and Martin Gilbert.

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Martin Gilbert, chief executive at Aberdeen Asset Management, answers questions from the journalists.

Everyone then headed downstairs to a round table question and answer session with both Wood and Gilbert as well as the two riders.

Team founder and owner John Wood explained the sponsorship was a huge boost to the team’s very real aspirations of going ProConti in 2016 and World Tour by 2018. It is another step forward for the Not For the Ordinary boss as sponsors continue to come on board after the success of the team in 2014, with, we understand, more to come.

“We are extremely proud to be teaming up with Aberdeen Asset Management in 2015 and onwards” John explained. “It’s the perfect partnership for us and we couldn’t have found a more ambitious and forward thinking company to get onboard and support our aspirations.”

“Aberdeen participates in sponsorships where it can get actively involved and make a difference. They have a history of supporting sport from the grassroots and helping to develop talent. This approach fits with NFTO’s ambitions to reach Pro-Continental level in 2016 and World Tour by 2018″.

“We want to continue to nurture youth talent like the exciting Eddie Dunbar and provide a career springboard for World Tour talent such as Adam Blythe (NFTO, 2014) and Steele von Hoff in 2015 to return to the pinnacle of the sport.”

John, who starting out on this journey by forming a club (NFTO Race) and then stepped up to UCI in 2014, went on to say during the discussion how it is his aim to give the very best riders in Britain who are stuck in the British scene and unable to secure a team in the upper echelons of the sport, a pathway that is currently not open to them.

That is to race abroad more and get themselves into the classic European races. There were no bold boasts of winning this or competing in that. Just keeping the feet on the ground and taking a sensible approach to growing whilst keeping their team’s philosophy of using that ‘awesome button’ to light up races as they did at Chorley and the Tour of Reservoir.

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Ian Bibby winning the Chorley GP in 2015

This will mean that whilst a pro conti NFTO/Aberdeen team will have an international line up in a squad of around 24 riders, it will in all probability, also have a healthy influx of British riders. The team boss also stated he has no intentions of abandoning the British scene.

Martin Gilbert, chief executive at Aberdeen Asset Management explained to the journalists how, being on the board of Sky, he has seen the popularity and reach that cycling can give sponsors and that the team going to Europe would be a perfect fit for his company. He added “This is the first time we’ve worked with a cycling team”.

“The profile of and participation in the sport has grown massively in recent years and we have a long track record of supporting UK sports people from the grassroots up to professional. Partnering with NFTO makes sense because they’re a strong, successful team with big ambitions; both are qualities we admire”.

“Many of our own people and those we work with enjoy cycling, so it’s an opportunity to engage with them and increase the awareness of who Aberdeen is and what we do.” Aberdeen’s existing sport sponsorship portfolio includes golf, sailing, skiing and rowing. The group is also involved with a number of cultural and arts sponsorships.

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Pic: tomshawphotography.com – Steele and Eddie go for a ride along the Embankment in London wearing the new kit

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The  new kit which will debut in the Tour of Yorkshire

 

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