Half a year after Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s launch, CEO Ralph Denk is assured he made the right choice, opting to sell a 51% controlling stake in his team’s management companies to the energy drinks giant, despite receiving interest from the Middle East.
Denk retained his decision-making powers as team boss in the landmark deal but feels freed up from the previous financial limitations that, at times, prevented him from “guiding the team the right way”, with much more budget to invest in the current squad and development.
“To be honest, you need a lot of money to be one of the best. I also had some conversations and negotiations with investors in Arabian countries. But for me, this did not really feel right,” Denk tells Cycling News, speaking at his team’s December training camp.
“Then I had conversations with Red Bull which is just 45 minutes from my hometown,” in Bavaria, “we speak the same language, and the same dialogue, and I had a really good feeling. I think after six months, I made the right decision to aim so high.”
For Denk, aside from the obvious added “experience in sports performance” from the Austrian company, part of the improvements offered by Red Bull’s full entry into cycling comes in the form of “boring” but “important” things, as he reels off “support in legal, accounting and human resources.”
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However, the key to what these past six months have been about is potential. The potential to invest in better riders, for the present and future. The potential to invest in areas of nutrition, technical development, and mental performance – three aspects Denk sees as vital in modern cycling.
It’s a potential Denk has been unable to access over the years of running Bora-Hansgrohe, often having to play the short-term sponsorship game to keep his team running, unlike projects such as Team Sky which he mentions several times during the interview, where long-term investment and the security that brought allowed for quicker and more vast development.
“[Red Bull] are very supportive in different areas: sports performance, mental performance, in technical things where there is a link between cycling and Formula One, but also in nutrition, which we believe could be maybe a game changer,” says Denk.
“There’s also a lot of areas where we can invest now. Our resources, finance-wise, were always limited in the past, it was not always easy for me to guide the team the right way and always make balanced decisions. But now the potential is massive.”
The investment puts them as “one of the best teams in the finance ranking”, although, “not the best, definitely” according to Denk, with the huge changes in ownership not doing much in the way of altering his power or financial exposure.
“I as the CEO, can decide more or less everything. This was important for me, to be a real decision-taker and leader, not just on paper because I have done this before,” Denk explains.
“I take always the finance risk and everything – from that point, really nothing has changed for me. But on the other side, we have the huge support and the potential of Red Bull.”
Investing in the present and the future
With the influx of extra budget, how much closer are Denk and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe to achieving their CEO’s goals of winning the Tour de France and becoming the “most attractive team in cycling”?
On the Tour, it’s safe to say Denk couldn’t have felt further away when stage 12 came to a close and he would have had to watch new star signing Primož Roglič go down and subsequently limp home 2:27 behind the peloton due to injury, crashing out of the GC and the following day, the race.
The Slovenian had been bought out of his contract at Visma-Lease a Bike by Denk for 2024 as their man to rival Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), Jonas Vingegaard (Visma), and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep). To make matters worse, Roglič had started stage 12 in fourth and by some margin, 2:15 off the lead and over a minute behind Vingegaard and Evenepoel.
“Our partners had big expectations for the Tour de France, and we messed it up totally. It was our worst TDF since 2014 which was our first Tour de France as a team,” says Denk, recalling the Team NetApp-Endura days.
Of course, there was Roglič’s bounceback at the Vuelta a España, in typical Roglič fashion, and this did bring the team their second Grand Tour victory in three years after Jai Hindley took home the 2022 Giro d’Italia. But a Tour triumph still seems a long way away, especially with Roglič ageing at 35 and the aforementioned trio of rivals all more than seven years younger.
Denk believes Roglič can thrive in her second year at Red Bull having joined after eight seasons on the same team and now been fully integrated as the team’s leader after a possible period of “culture shock.” The Slovenian will take on the Giro-Tour double as leader in 2025.
“The Tour was hard for us, but we stayed calm, prepared well for the Vuelta, believed in ourselves and created success. It was a nice comeback story,” says Denk.
“I think Primož’s second year will be more successful than the first because when he arrived here, he had never seen a different environment to Jumbo-Visma. It’s the first time in his cycling career he saw the different environment of a team, which is a lot to work with.
“This was definitely a culture shock. Every team has their own DNA and their own approach but I think we managed it well and now he is strongly integrated.”
While Denk wasn’t willing to comment on the future of Roglič on the team as he enters a contract year in 2025, what’s certain is that he is also already thinking several years ahead when it comes to achieving both his key ambitions.
From the multitude of signings he’s made, which includes both Grand Tour potential and strong climbing support, to the opening of their under-23 “Rookies” program, Denk is trying to ensure Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe don’t let the next superstar slip through their fingers.
Alongside their under-19 GRENKE-Auto Eder team, the German team have a full pathway through from talent discovery to potential leadership in the WorldTour, typical of Red Bull’s similar models in other sports.
“The Rookie program, under-19 and under-23, is super important for us because this is the Red Bull DNA, to develop riders,” explains Denk.
“If you look at the current Formula One grid, from the 20 drivers, how many have come from the Red Bull Academy? That is the Red Bull way, the Red Bull approach and that is why we investing so massive in this stream.”
The highlight of the Rookies program for 2025 is junior road race world champion Lorenzo Finn, 18, who has the potential to become a Grand Tour rider. He’ll likely join the WorldTour squad in 2027 after furthering his development at the under-23 level.
Denk also made significant investments into Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s one-day Classics squad, wanting to make them into a team that wins all year round. All of their nine new signings from rival teams have enjoyed some success prior to their moves but again it’s all about their potential.
Among the nine, only Gianni Moscon and Jan Tratnik are over 30, with Laurence Pithie, Finn Fisher-Black, Oier Lazkano, Giulio Pellizzari, Maxim Van Gils, Tim van Dijke and his twin brother Mick van Dijke all still under 25.
“I think it’s a really good signal that we already have huge talents in the under-19 and in the under-23 squad, like Finn, but also in the pros,” says Denk. “Our newly signed riders are really young and it’s up to us to make them better.
“That was our approach for signing riders – [getting them] just before their big success is coming up. Hopefully, and you never know, maybe it’s Pelizzari who will be our next Grand Tour winner, I have no clue, but hopefully.”
While the Vuelta victory saved their initial period with Red Bull on board, Denk will now have to cement Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s status as one of the ‘super-teams’ by winning another Grand Tour.
This is what will make for a successful second season, according to the CEO, alongside becoming a major player again in the one-day Classics as they once were with Peter Sagan.
He’s taken a big gamble with the money spent on new signings who may or may not reach their potential, but with the backing of the energy drinks giant, it’s a risk he can take more often. Just how close will another season with Red Bull and their big budget at the helm bring Denk to his key goals?
