SpiderTech won’t return in 2014

Canadian Pro Continental team SpiderTech won’t continue in 2014 as owner Steve Bauer had hoped. Bauer admitted Wednesday that the project, started in 2008, has come to end after his search for new sponsorship failed. He told SportCom, “We’ve done great things over the years, but unfortunately SpiderTech was not the partner that we needed to continue.”

The squad competed in the pro continental ranks in 2012, with highlights of a Tour de Suisse wildcard invitation and Ryan Roth’s victory in the Tro Bro Léon, but in October of that year the team’s management company announced that it would cancel the following season’s racing to “use the upcoming year to focus on acquiring additional corporate sponsorship.” Riders scrambled to find new teams over the winter.

After nine months, Bauer has been unable to find new financial backing and has indicated that the fallout of the Lance Armstrong affair and the current global financial crisis have contributed to a lack of sponsorship. Though disappointed and frustrated, Bauer says, “I still hope to see one day a Canadian team in the WorldTour.”