Earlier this month, after 10 years as the manager and main sponsor of a World Tour Cycling Team, one of our first brands to join The Active Kollection, Katusha, announced that it would continue it’s involvement in the highest level of professional cycling by partnering with both a men’s and a women’s team.

 

Katusha have recently signed an agreement with the Israel Cycling Academy (ICA), for the next three seasons, which will see the ICA managing a team which will include mostly riders and team staff currently contracted with Team Katusha-Alpecin.

 

As it has done in previous seasons, Katusha will remain a partner of the new team and will provide it’s high-end cycling apparel to the pro riders.

In addition, an announcement on a new partnership with a professional women’s cycling team, is expected shortly.

 

These partnerships will enable to Katusha to continue using pro teams as a focus for their product development, as part of their ambitious process that has created some incredible collections over the past decade.

With the pro team functioning as a “lab” for Katusha, the brand will continue to produce world-leading apparel with a commitment to performance, style and cutting-edge technology.

 

 In the last ten years as part of the World Tour, Katusha have won an impressive 26 National Champions jerseys and 28 Grand Tour stages.

In 2012, Joaquim Rodriguez became the first Spanish rider to win the Il Lombardia Classic after a powerful solo breakaway on the final climb of the day. He went on to repeat his heroics by winning the Il Lombardia the very next year.

 

The following year, Norway’s Alexander Kristoff outsprinted a superb field to win the 2014 Milan-San Remo after a gruelling day in the saddle that included hours of hail, heavy winds and freezing rain.

 

In 2015, Kristoff then went on to become the first Norwegian to win the cobbled Tour of Flanders.

The Katusha management would be the first to admit that in the last couple of years the results have been disappointing, as they have failed to reach the heights of 2012-15. The reduced budget of the team has contributed to these challenges, as have changes to the pro cycling industry as a whole.

 

However, the team are determined to turn around their fortunes on the 2020 World Tour, and to play an increasingly active role in securing the reputation and future of the sport more generally.