CrowdRiders: the world's first professional cycling team owned and managed by 40.000 cycling fans!

Crowdriders is an initiative to start a professional cycling team with an international crowd of 40.000 cycling enthusiasts. By paying an annual fee CrowdRiders’ members become owners and managers of this professional cycling team having a vote in all the major decisions affecting the cycling team. A team that will participate in some of the biggest and most famous races all over the world!
Among other things CrowdRiders will have a vote in which riders to attract, which races to ride, riders selection, who should be the sports director of the team and what should be the team’s (internal) anti-doping policy. Even the team’s jersey design will be democratically elected.
This approach will make it a truly crowd managed cycling team. YOUR professional cycling team!!

The goal
Crowdriders’ aims at starting in the 2010 season with an annual budget of 4 million euro which is higher than the very competitive and 2008 Tour de France participating teams of Barloworld and Agritubel.

Just above half of this annual budget will be gathered by means of 40.000 members from all over the world paying an annual 55 eur membership fee. This fee will make them co-owners and managers of the team having direct voting power in all the major decisions affecting the team. Bringing in 51% of the budget means the crowd is the majority stake holder and at all times will have control over the team’s management.
The other half of the budget will be financed by external shirt, material and website sponsors. They will get no decision power of any sort.

In the current initial phase CrowdRiders is looking for 40.000 cycling enthusiasts showing interest in owning and managing this pro cycling team.
As a cycling enthusiast you can become an aspiring CrowdRider, free of charge and of any further obligations, by registering your personal details here. Only when 40.000+ people have registered, showing a strong support for this idea, we will start setting up a CrowdRiders pro cycling team and collecting membership fees!

The features of this unique pro cycling team are among others:

1. Be one of the owners and managers of a pro cycling team; voting power for every member over a wide range of team decisions from rider’s signing and team selection, jersey design up to the team’s internal doping policy.
2. Your name on the official team’s jersey and tour bus (for more on this see the F.A.Q.)
3. Get an insiders view in the team through members only news feeds, video footage, riders interviews and more
4. See YOUR pro-cycling team on tv riding the biggest races around the world
5. Get access to the ‘team members only’ season opening and closing events
6. Possibility to ride with the pro riders of the CrowdRiders team during specially organized global member events
7. See your CrowdRiders team in races close to your living area as it is you who decides upon the team’s race calendar
8. and much much more…….(submit suggestions through our contact form)

More information about CrowdRiders can be found on http://www.crowdriders.com