It was to have been a new approach to pro cycling and it was to have been driven out of Ireland.
Yesterday however Aqua Blue Sport announced that they would not be applying for a Pro licence to cover the 2019 season.
You have to say they gave it their best shot, not only getting up and running but competing at the Vuelta Espana, one of the sports Grand Tours and going one step further by winning a stage when Stefan Denifl did just that in 2017.
The hoped for invitations to compete in more high profile events did not materialise however and the writing was on the wall earlier this year when team backer Rick Delaney said that having put €7 million into the team that it was nowhere near the model of becoming self sustaining as had been hoped.
In the statement issued on Twitter, there was some hope held out for the future and news that the ecommerce platform for the sale of bikes and equipment would continue in the hope that the team could “return to the road unshackled, at some point in the future.”
Breaking the mould is never easy and you have to give full marks for effort in getting as far as they did.
It was however a step too far in a sport that is incredibly expensive to break through into.
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