Breaking Down My 2025 Contracts
If you’re new here, please do Subscribe!
With the 2025 race season about to kick off, I thought it was about time to introduce you to my partners for the season. Partnerships (sponsorships) are what makes the wheels go round in the athlete world. We all know that it’s not the perfect business model, but it’s difficult to solve too - trust me, I’m trying.
There are different types of partnership: cash, product, value in kind, and covering of expenses. There’s never a minimum and definitely not a maximum number that a partnership can be. I’ve heard some bigger names turn down deals under a certain amount, but depending on the deliverables, I don’t quite get that.
Full transparency: Sponsorship is very slightly up this year, but my overall income is down. I don’t make a full salary from my partnerships that are linked to racing. In 2024, I also had one full-time writing client and worked on Ribble Rebellion. Oh, and I freelanced a bit, too. Scroll to the bottom for a bit about my work set-up this year.
The sponsor signing season is usually between August and October, but I’m always open to chatting if there’s a fun project or product on the table.
Partners:
Pullwood Consulting
This is year three with Pullwood Consulting behind me. What started as a message to Jon Twigg asking for a little bit of advice on pitching has grown into the most valuable relationship of my privateer era.
Jon and Nick have launched, scaled, worked for and consulted for tech companies across Europe and Asia. Their expertise is in start-ups, and through Pullwood they offer professional training, consulting and Spotlight Profiling.
The Spotlight Profiling was eye opening to me. It made me aware about certain traits, and provides great nudges for when I’m rushing into projects at a million miles an hour. Here’s one section of mine:
The two of them are spectacular mentors, and I hope I work with them both long after my cycling career ends. When it comes to business skills or people skills, a call to the Pullwood guys is priceless.
Having them in my corner isn’t just a ‘sponsorship’ or a ‘partnership’; it has blossomed into a friendship.
ENVE Composites
ENVE doesn't need an introduction. They’re known for making some of the best wheels in the world, and, since 2021 have been making bikes too. I first met their Director of Marketing, Neil Shirley, at Sea Otter in 2024. I asked Maggie to introduce me as she’d previously ridden ENVE at her previous team.
The ENVE bikes and gear doesn’t just look bling - they perform too. I mean, it’s the choice of the world’s best rider, Tadej Pogačar. They’re also open to feedback. If I think something can be improved on, or if I want to develop a TT bar for my gravel bike, they’re all ears.
Working with ENVE is great because they’re bike riders. For example, Neil gave me a call last week as I was walking in from a long ride. I start explaining where I’d been him, and he replies, ‘Hey, go get a shower and some food, then call me back.’
This might seem simple, but it’s not always that way. Working with good people rocks.
Castelli Cycling
My second year with the global giants of the cycling kit world. I’m riding under Castelli’s Spirit of Gravel (SOG) banner, which is officially a ‘cabal’. Effectively, it’s a group of privateers running Castelli gear.
Castelli are simply performance, aren’t they? If it’s horrible winter weather, you want Castelli kit in your wardrobe. The aero gear is great too, and they’re constantly developing new products. Whether they’ll admit it or not, every pro owns a piece of Castelli kit. My favourite items of kit are the Perfetto Air Jacket and the short sleeve GabbaR. Honestly, the Perfetto Air could be the best bit of kit I’ve ever owned - it’s my go-to for winter weather - well, unless it’s biblical.
When it comes to personal relationships, every time I get the chance to chat to Søren Jenson, Castelli’s global marketing man, I come away with a smile. If you ask anyone in the industry, Søren is one of the good guys, and it’s a pleasure to work with him.
Panaracer Tyres
I first met Jeff Zell at Unbound last year. He has my favourite job title in the world: “Global go-to guy”. I’d just come off the back of a very bad few experiences of the previous tyres that I was using and was looking for a change.
He sent me some GravelKing X1’s to use next week in Canada, and I was a fan. From then on, I did my damned hardest to break the things. I’d go ride through rocky terrain, over glass in the road - anything to try and kill them. I couldn’t.
When it comes to tyre choice, I put a lot of trust in how they feel to me. I’m not convinced there is one perfect tyre for every rider off-road - we all have different riding styles and demands. For me, the GravelKing X1 has worked a dream.
I’ve mainly been racing it in a 45, but they’ve just launched the 50. I’ll be using the 50s almost all year, I think.
Jeff and I are going to battle all year as to whether it’s ‘tyre’, or ‘tire’. British English for the win.
Cotton Sox Sports:
I have Cathy and Alex to thank for something very, very important. The two of them were the owners and directors of DNA Pro Cycling, the team that gave Maggie a shot, and, ultimately, her path to Europe. Without these two, I’d never have met Mags.
With DNA Pro Cycling now retired as a team, Cotton Sox Sports is their venture into the world of other sports partnerships.
In fact, I’m writing this from up in Salt Lake City out in their guest house. SLC is going to be one of my US bases this season.
Rudy Project:
Rudy’s new TT helmet, the Wingdream is quietly becoming one of the best options on the market. I’d heard a few whispers about the Wingdream and how well it was testing, and then the opportunity to work with Rudy fell into my lap.
I met Massimo in Cambridge earlier this year for a photoshoot with Rudy, and it’s the best sponsor shoot I’ve ever done in my life. It was a Cambridge city tour, meets culinary experience and a healthy dose of bikes!
I’m racing the Nytron helmet, and the Kelion glasses too.
Suppliers:
The Feed:
The issue with nutrition is that everyone has different tastes, and that means you like different products from different brands. I love the Carbs Fuel Gel, the Styrkr50 bar, SiS Beta Chews, and Precision’s caffeine gels. Then there’s Maurten for bicarb, First Endurance for supplements and SiS for protein.
With The Feed, you get the best of all worlds. Everything can be ordered on one central marketplace and delivered straight to your house. It’s the best nutrition deal in cycling, hands down. It also has the added benefit that it allows me to try new products, like the Untapped Waffles, which do not feel like ride food.
Work:
As I alluded to, my work - at least my reliable work - is very much down this year. Alongside racing, I’m a freelance writer. I work for both brands and in the media. My day-to-day work can be anything from copywriting to advising a brand on their partnership strategy or writing articles for publications.
In the past, I’ve had work contracts that are multiple months; this year, I’m very much freelance. I’ll admit, I do miss having the security of at least one long(er) work contract.
With work being quieter, I’m instead focusing on building this Substack. You’ll probably have noticed that I’m writing more frequently, and I’m aiming to keep a twice-weekly schedule.
You are going to start seeing some partnerships on this Substack. Whether that be with brands partnering on a single article or monthly. Please stay with me as I inevitably make some mistakes along the way here.
This Substack also has a paid option. Currently, there are no benefits to signing up to be a paid subscriber, but I am going back and forth on a couple of ideas which could come into play.
Full transparency: I don’t like the subscription model, and I think most of us have subscription fatigue. That being said, the only two ways of making media work financially is advertorials or subscription. If you know of any other model, I’m all ears!
While you’re here…
I’ve added a paid subscription and a ‘Buy Me A Coffee’ link to this post. As the year progresses, I’m planning on building this blog and putting out articles which I’ve always wanted to write but, for whatever reason, haven’t wanted to pitch. Your contributions allow me to do that.
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/joelaverick
Throughout March, I’m going to be doing a partnership with buycycle on this Substack. Founded in 2021, buycycle are a preowned bike market place in Europe, and now the US.
There’ll be more on this later this week, but readers of this Substack can save 30% on seller protection when they list a bike with the code ‘JOELAVERICK30’, use this link to get going!
