Summary

In this episode, Matt Wilson, co-founder of the Pro Velo Cycling League, discusses the inception and purpose of the league, the challenges faced by Australian cycling, and the cultural shifts affecting competitive cycling. He shares insights from the league's first season, innovations planned for the future, and strategies for funding and sponsorship. The conversation also touches on the importance of engaging viewers through content creation and the league's commitment to fostering international participation in cycling events.

Provelo webite: https://provelosuperleague.com/ Takeaways

The Pro Velo Cycling League aims to revitalize Australian cycling. A healthy elite domestic cycling scene is vital for youth development. Rising costs and lack of volunteers are major challenges for cycling events. Cultural shifts have led to decreased participation in competitive cycling. Innovative technology is being integrated into cycling broadcasts. Funding and sponsorship are crucial for the league's sustainability. Engaging content creation is key to attracting viewers and sponsors. The league is open to international teams and riders. Prize money is currently low but aims to improve with funding. The league's long-term vision includes a crowdfunding campaign for support.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Pro Velo Cycling League 03:44 The Purpose and Vision Behind Pro Velo 10:27 Challenges Facing Domestic Cycling in Australia 17:49 Lessons Learned from the First Season 24:02 Prize Money and Future Plans 30:31 Sponsorship and Team Dynamics

Cam Nicholls (00:00.13) Welcome back to the RCA podcast where today I'm joined by Matt Wilson who is the co-founder of the Pro Velo Cycling League. Also as a neighbour of mine, so I wanted to bring him in today to talk about the Pro Velo team. Our reason being the RCA is actually putting together a team for next year and we'll go through why and who the riders are and who our sponsors are towards the back end of this discussion. But Matt, I wanted to pose this question to you because a lot of people that listen to our podcast, they're...

American, they're UK European, Canadian, they might be wondering what the hell is the Pro Velo League, what is this all about? in its simplest form, can you explain to us what it is?

So the genesis of it, I guess, came about two years ago, two and a half, three years ago actually, probably when it started. I used to run an NRS race and the NRS series was the National Road Series in Australia, was the top domestic road cycling series. And that had been going for about 20 years. And I'd seen it when I was a rider, as a young rider, and then obviously transitioned into a different role as I went along.

And eventually started the Australian Cycling Academy. And this part of that, we started a race, an NRS race up on the Sunshine Coast, which was called Cycle Sunshine Coast. in that 20 year period, we saw it go from strength to strength down to what was basically running at six o'clock in the morning with a chalk line on the road, getting the riders out there and just creating some sort of race for people to race. was no commercial value. Sponsors coming into the sport were getting nothing. Events were struggling to break even.

teams were struggling. So there was no commercial model there anymore and the whole thing was about to fall over. There's only a few races left on the calendar that had any sort of security. So I had in my mind from a team point of view, from a rider point of view, from a race organizer point of view, what was needed to turn it around. And essentially we needed a bucket of money to come into the sport and we needed to create a commercial model that made sense.

Matt Wilson (02:08.248) that meant it was more cost effective for teams to come to races. It made sense for young riders to be able to come and race in the season. And it made sense for events because they could get eyeballs on it again. People would come and watch the race. Sponsors could get involved. There would be TV broadcast for to get some return on their investment for the sponsors. So everything needed to get switched. And we tried to create a model that encapsulated all of that. So compact season.

three months, a narrative that the public could understand, bringing the racing back to the people. So running it at times of day where people will go and watch in areas that they can come and see it to create a good live broadcast that was cost effective, but gave return on investment for riders and teams and event sponsors. And create an exciting racing platform that is dynamic, that is more accessible to all.

which is more open to results, not dominated by one team, basically. So it made the racing more competitive. And that's what the Pro Velo Super League is. So we started, we had to create three new events in our first season. was last year? Which was last year.

this year. I'm forgetting what year we're in now.

So we created three new events as part of the league and then we took the three oldest and most established national series races which is Tour of Tasmania, the Melbourne to Warrnambool and the Grafton to Inverrell and we encapsulated those into those three new events that we started and launched the league.

Cam Nicholls (03:46.35) Yeah, well, okay. And so what's the purpose of it? Like, why do it at all?

So, like I said, the sport was dying in Australia.

was going to say the sport, talking about like the amateur top level road scene, which is like your segue to your next step into Asia or your next step overseas. Yes.

Okay. Yeah. So the world tour level stuff is going great. Is it? That exists overseas. Yep. Got the tour down under in Australia, Cuddell Evans Great Ocean Road Race. That's great. But other than that, it exists overseas. It doesn't exist in Australia. And everything else from club level through to the top domestic level is struggling and dying. And the pathway is especially important. So if club level cycling exists,

and a good young rider comes through, starts to win some club level races and then wants to go to the next level. If there's no pathway, there's no stepping stone with a top elite domestic cycling series, where does that rider go? They're going to have to go straight to Europe. And that's a big, big jump for any rider to take from club level.

Cam Nicholls (04:58.008) seen it. To Europe. You're no better than me but I've just seen it just knowing a few guys.

From top level domestic competition to Europe is a massive step. A massive step that most riders can't get over. But from club level to there, it's almost an impossible task. So we need to have a healthy, elite domestic cycling scene. It's vital to Australian road cycling and without it, yeah, the sport will go backwards in this country. There's just no doubt about it. And it's become so expensive to run races in Australia that

we need to have a healthy commercial model around it to support that cycling scene.

Why has it become so expensive?

Police costs have, since I started running races, which was six years ago now, have probably gone up four times. Four years. It's probably our most expensive item line now is just police costs. So you're seeing more and more closed circuit races. So fixed criteria and courses that are purpose made criteria and courses, motorsport park courses, because these don't require police or traffic management. So between the police, the traffic management and the insurance, that's half your event costs gone already.

Cam Nicholls (05:47.372) times in six years.

Matt Wilson (06:08.898) And you haven't even stuck a barrier up or, you know, put any infrastructure in or anything. it's just become incredibly expensive and, and difficult to run events out on roads. People don't want events out on roads. The public don't like it. There's crashes and people who crash sue, sue their event organizers or sue the police for having a crash. And, you know, all these things increase the insurance, increase the costs, increase the liability and event organizers become less excited about running cycling races.

Okay. Well, that's frustrating and disappointing to hear, but understandable. You mentioned as well about, you know, cycling struggling at a club level. I've certainly seen that. I remember like going back to even 2018 when I was leaving Melbourne and moving to the Sunshine Coast and there was the Tuesday nights at Sandown in Melbourne hosted by Caulfield Carnegie. I remember for years

A grade, B grade, C grade, you know, they had 60 to 80 riders. It was jam packed every Tuesday. And then once, I don't know what it was, but it was around 2018. Those numbers just started to dwindle down to 30 to 40, 20 to 30. And it's like, what's going on? And I remember it's like, seeing it with my own eyes. And it just seems to have dwindled ever since. And obviously COVID hit, which probably didn't help. But what do you think it is? Obviously you've got your hand on the pulse here at that kind of

club level and even at a race level, know, like domestic racing external to like national road series going back that long. So like tour of bright numbers were diminishing as well. do you have any, I know you're probably speculating, but any thoughts as to what it is?

Yeah, I've got theories. Shoot. Look, I think we're seeing now a generation of riders that came through the, everyone gets a ribbon generation, you know? So competition was looked at a bit differently when these kids were growing up than when I was growing up. And I feel like they battle a lot with turning up to a race and not winning and what that psychological effect on them.

Matt Wilson (08:21.838) I don't know, but there's definitely not an appetite to put themselves out there and just race and just race for racers sake. I mean, the Nusa Criterium was on two weeks ago. It's still probably the richest race in Australia. was $5,000 first prize for a 30 minute criteria. And they struggled to get over 30 entries. Now in my day, if someone had put up a thousand dollars for a criteria, you would have 200 people turn up. even though, you know,

more than half that field had no chance of winning it. The fact that it was good prize money, that there was something to race there for, people would get out there and they would race and they'd race hard and they'd get together in groups and try and form little teams and do whatever they can to get a chop of the prize money. there was a different culture back then to racing and that culture I don't feel like is there anymore and people are scared and protective. So there's a cultural change there in terms of club level racing.

Clubs are finding it impossible now. Okay, the costs are going up for them just like everybody else, but they can't find volunteers anymore. So the demand on people's time is greater now than it ever has been. And people's willingness to do something as a volunteer is disappearing, that community aspect of helping someone else. And that's making it harder and harder to run races. So you're getting less and less races, you're getting less clubs, less membership, and everything sort of starts to go down.

I think it's a cultural problem more than anything else. And I hope it turns around. I have spoken to people in other sports who said that this next generation coming through, these 16 to 18 year olds now are kind of a little bit different to the ones that have been, you know, the 25 and 26 year olds that have come through recently that they're a little bit edgier. They're a little bit willing to put themselves out there. So interesting. Maybe social media has a bit to do with it as well. Now you can get your ass kicked and

Everyone sees it now. Back in my day, was a byline on the bottom of the newspaper, the results. Everyone was bit more hidden, so maybe that's got something to do with it as well.

Cam Nicholls (10:28.716) Yeah, interesting. Yeah, there was a bit of banter around the Caulfield-Cunnigy cycling club around that era, you know, 17, 18, that, you know, I remember actually riding in the local group rides in Melbourne, you know, the North Road ride and Hell Ride, you know, you'd be like, that guy, you know, he came third in B grade at St Kilda on the weekend and people would talk about it. It was kind of like prestigious to, he made it to B grade or that guy's just made it to A grade.

won the hell ride last week.

Yeah. then it was like, so that was talked about, but then it was like this emergence of social media and, you know, people could go buy the 20 grand bike or maybe it wasn't 20 grand back then. was more like 12 and, you know, put on the map kit and look really cool and get some, you know, sleeve tats. And that was kind of them being, oh, that's a good, cool looking cyclist. You know, that guy's got respect versus, you know, maybe like five years prior, was actually, you you had to go down to the crits and you had to go earn your stripes and make it through the grades to get a bit of, you know, credit in the bunch.

So that was speculated back then, who knows what at all. Maybe it's a blend of everything, yeah. So going back to the Pro Velo, like when you look at this year, what did you learn from this year? This is your first go at it. Like what were the big lessons from this year and what does next year and the following years look like? And I know you obviously got some considerations as well surrounding funding for the league as well in the future.

Yeah, look, it was, we got the green light. So we sat down with Jerry Ryan with our concept. And this was in a two and under in 2000 and two years ago now. And we sat down, it was a 15 minute conversation and it was a handshake and said, yeah, I'm on board. And, you know, we had a three to five year plan to make this sustainable, financially sustainable. But that was in January and we had to launch the league in

Matt Wilson (12:22.126) the following January. So we had 12 months and we had nothing. We didn't have a website. We had a logo. And we had a concept. That was it. So we had to create three new events, a digital platform, a following, you know, convinced the community that we were real and we were happening and get teams and riders on board. it was a, it was a incredibly difficult year.

That's good, that'll get you far.

Cam Nicholls (12:45.314) how many people are involved in that organization or that you just described.

essentially myself and my co-founder Aaron Flanagan with the main parts and Aaron has a team around him, a digital marketing group, two people, graphic designer and that's basically it. So it was an incredible amount of work and this year it's been all about trying to refine that. How do we make that better? How do we make those events better? How do we make it more efficient? We spent a lot of money.

learning, trying to deliver all these events one after the other after the other. What worked in the broadcasting? What didn't work? How can we improve that side? So our broadcaster, SBS, getting together with them, thinking, throwing around a few new ideas. We really tried to bring as much technology to the league as possible last year. So innovative, what's going to bring viewers in? We had a concept called the ValoPhone, which was

a direct line from the commentator to a rider in the race where the commentator can ask the rider questions who's actually in the race. And that was fantastic. mean, insights that's a world first, you know, for a commentator to be able to do that inside a race. So that was, that was a great innovation.

Did that idea come from out of curiosity?

Matt Wilson (14:06.418) just throwing it around. had, I had myself and Dan Jones, working a bit creatively on the, on the broadcast and what could we bring to it? now as good as that was, we're using pretty raw tech, basically using an iPhone and a, and a, and a cable to speak to the rider and connecting through, through WhatsApp. so we're trying to refine that for next year. How can we make that better? we're trying to link those through GoPros now. So you can not only have.

speaking to the rider from the commentator, but you can see what that rider is seeing as you're talking to him. So being able to connect directly to that GoPro and see it live. So insights like that, think, and we're doing this on a shoestring, mind you. So if we can get more funding in, if we can work on that tech and get it better, I'd love to see a technology where, you know, one rider from every team has a live GoPro in the race, and you can watch through a website and...

connect to different writers, watch what different writers see, follow different teams. You know, there's a lot of things that the technology is out there to do. We've just got to bring it into the Peloton and get it working.

Okay. Interesting. And in terms of lessons, maybe if we look, was there a big mistake that you made or a couple of mistakes where you're like, hmm, probably shouldn't have done that, could do that a lot better next time.

Not really. Like I said, it's fine tuning across the board. It's making the races more cost efficient, bringing a better technology and better broadcast to the viewers. Social media, I think we can step up a lot and we've got a plan to have a full social media team at every event and really pump out the value there for not only teams, but viewers. Sponsorship was one area where we really didn't land the plane last year. again, we're

Matt Wilson (15:56.878) brand new. We didn't exist. So it took a real leap of faith for any sponsors to come on board. So we need to do better at that next year and we're starting to get some traction with a few good sponsors. So yeah, all those little things need to step up and we need more teams. And it looks like next year we will have probably 20 to 30 % more teams on board. Oh, wow.

So how many more teams will that be? What's 20 to 30 %?

Probably two new men's, probably three new men's teams and two new women's I'd say. great.

Yeah. so what is the plan? I mean, is there like a five year plan? I kind of hate that question, but I've been, it was one of the questions from one of the RCA's writers for next year. What's the five year plan, but is there a three year plan or a two year plan? Obviously it's going to depend on funding.

Yeah. So, yeah, we had a five year plan originally, which, which showed, financial turnaround. So three to five years, somewhere around that we start to break even and then, and then start to make a little money on it. but you know, that's contingent on, on getting funding in, the beginning, because these things take time. It takes time to build a following, takes time to build a product that sponsors want to come on board. And that's critical to everything that we do from the event side.

Matt Wilson (17:15.054) through to the league. So yeah, we definitely need more supporters. We're going to launch a crowdfunding campaign during the season next year, which allows anybody for any amount to come on board and support it and be an investor in the league. We have launched a membership program called the PSL Patrons, which is a high-end membership program, which has a tax deductible donation to the league as well.

All these things will help support what we do and help get to that three year, five year plan where it can turn around and start to be self sustainable.

Where can people find links to these things? Are they on the Provelo website?

Yeah, the Patrons Program is on the Probello website and the crowdfunding campaign will launch next year during the season. So just keep an eye out for that one.

Lame question. So when you talk about breaking even and eventually making some money, which would be nice because obviously people are putting in a lot of effort. Is the money mainly coming? It's obviously not because the teams pay us, I guess, a small fee at the end of the day to participate, but that's probably not covering much and that's not really where you're going to be making your revenue. So does it come down to sponsors? Is that where the money is really coming from?

Matt Wilson (18:23.458) Yeah, I mean, originally it's coming from Jerry Ryan. So it's through Jerry Ryan's investment that this was able to happen. So like I said, in the beginning of the podcast, it's, it's, knew at the beginning that we needed a big bucket of money to turn this thing around, to bring events back where people can see it, to bring a broadcast there, to give teams and sponsors some return on their investment. So once you start to put that investment in, everything starts to return for partners, then the sponsorship values go up, then the fees go up.

then the events become more sustainable, the events start to make money and all ships rise with the tide, I think they say. So that's the modelling that we've done. And we believe over that three to five year period, we start to generate enough diversified revenue to be able to break even. And at that point, the Lee becomes sustainable for the future.

Yeah, okay, interesting. With the sponsors, like where do they, like if you're having a conversation with them, like this is down the track as well, like consider, you know, the Pro Velo has now been running for a few years, you've got some runs on the board, you've got some tangible things that you can point to. What are you pointing to to bring sponsors on board? Are you pointing to like how many people are watching it on SBS or are you pointing to how big your social media is and how much engagement you're getting there? Like what are the key assets?

All those metrics come into one big pot, don't they? And we provide to every team that's registered as part of the league, we provide a report once a month with where our viewers are at. So how much social media views we're generating, how much broadcast views we're generating, other media as well. So we pull all that together, we give out a report and all the events and all the teams get those reports. So you can go back to your sponsor and say, this is who's watching.

As long as those numbers are growing, we know we're on the right track because that means viewers are coming back. That means they're their friends about it and their friends are tuning in. So as those numbers start to grow, the sponsorship value grows. And with it, the lead becomes more sustainable. you know, that's the theory. As long as people watch, we will get there. It's just a matter of time. But that's the million dollar question. Will people watch and what can you, how can you create a

Cam Nicholls (20:30.04) Yeah

Matt Wilson (20:38.478) a broadcast that's going to bring viewers in. And I mean, all sports are struggling. There's so much content out there nowadays. How do you cut through? People are consuming their content differently. They're not sitting down for three, four hours, just watching something. They're on their phone at the same time. They're switching, you know, so everyone's competing now for eyeballs and it's, and it's it's hard. So we've got to be clever and innovative and, and, and move with the times and yeah, hopefully people watch. Yeah.

Yeah, it's interesting. was listening to, I think it was a Joe Rogan podcast, somebody talking about the NBA and talking about how NBA is exploding in terms of popularity around the world. But people watching the game on TV is down. People going to the games is down compared to previous years. So where is it exploding? It's exploding on social media. It's exploding in highlights packages. People from all over the world want to see the three minute clip of the team that they now follow because they're watching it on social media.

And some players doing some incredible 360 dunk or something like that. So that's what we're kind of hoping to do with it, because obviously we're submitting a team, is get some good footage with the riders. I've even told Wigo if he can win a sprint and punch out 2000 watts at the same time, I'll give him a little bonus myself because I know that would be amazing footage and like it.

you know, really good views on YouTube and Instagram when we create this stuff and turn it into reels and turn it into YouTube videos and basically turn it into content. So I think that's one thing that's unique about the league and what drew me in because I'm still feel like I'm a bit of a layman when it comes to like what we're talking about today. Like I've always just been like a cycling content creator and I do lean into what's happening in the Australian scene and the professional scene, but nowhere near, you know,

your level, but I do see a gap in terms of people really love to see elite riders racing at high speeds, big power numbers in sketchy situations. And it's not always possible to see because I know a lot of the UCI rules, professional riders can't have cameras on their bikes. And that's also, it also depends on the commissary as well. But like I've seen

Cam Nicholls (23:00.79) There's a channel on YouTube called NorCal Cycling who really brought elite crit racing to the forefront by just basically putting a GoPro on the front of his bike, on the back of his bike, and just showing his power numbers and showing some sketchy situations. And some of his, the visibility of his content is huge. So that's the reason why, and I, going back to your question about, you know, what are the tangible assets that sponsors see in terms of wanting to contribute.

That's how we've been able to bring on our sponsors by saying, yeah, we're going to make content out of it. This is what it's going to look like. It's a bit of pipe green now, but hopefully it can come to fruition.

No, good on you. In short, well, yeah.

Hopefully we can contribute to a bit more visibility in the league as well. So I got some questions from the RCA Bikes Online is the name of the team, RCA Bikes Online riders. They wanted to know about prize money. What's the deal with prize money this year? Or next year I should say.

Absolutely.

Matt Wilson (24:05.75) Yeah, look, prize money is low. I'll be honest. And it's not because we're being tight asses. It's because we need to create funding to run these events. for these first few years, we're running at a loss. So we need to stage things accordingly. So the prize money is low. It's on the website. It's not a lot. But the first prize is a Factor Ostro, complete with black ink wheels, SRAM Red groupset.

It's almost $20,000 bike, think, and that's for the winner of the men's league and the winner of the women's league. So first prize is dynamite. But then yet the money comes off pretty quickly. But we've all got to commit to a sustainable future. And when we get this thing financial enough, we will certainly be giving out decent prize money.

That makes a lot of sense. Team time trials, will that ever form part of the racing schedule?

Look, wouldn't, I'd never say no, but you know, back to try and create that competitive landscape. Team time trials generally benefit the strongest team. So we're trying to keep the racing close, keep the racing as open as possible and keep every team as competitive as possible. So putting in a team time trial would go against that to a certain degree. I agree. It's a great training platform for development for young riders having that.

opportunity to race in a team time trial environment is pretty special, yeah, certainly not next year, potentially down the road sometime.

Cam Nicholls (25:41.462) Okay. Can international riders compete in international teams? Notably, I've been asked here, Asian and New Zealand teams.

Yes, absolutely. Open to all nationalities. We've got a couple of New Zealand teams that have signed on for next year, which is exciting. For the whole of Just for certain blocks. It's expensive to come out for the whole time. But we provide free entry to international teams to come. So if there's any listening, definitely reach out. We'll try and support you wherever we can. We're actually broadcasting internationally.

league or just for a certain few races.

Matt Wilson (26:20.042) next year for the first time. We've got a media rights deal with Sky Sports New Zealand. So that'll be live on Sky Sports in New Zealand and we'll

races all of them awesome wow okay

all of them and then we are looking into internationally doing either YouTube or Facebook and doing a streaming product that's geo block. So you can't watch that in Australia. You've to watch on SBS in Australia, but overseas you'll be able to see it on Facebook or YouTube. In terms of individual international writers, we're also open to individual writers if they want to come out and do it and we can provide free entry for writers who are coming overseas.

Not if you happen to be British sitting in Australia with a job, getting a free entry, but we're trying to support riders that want to come out and be a part of this. So we can provide free entry as well for international riders that want to come out. And look, we proved last, this year, sorry, I think probably almost a dozen riders that came through the league are now in World Tour connected programs.

Okay

Matt Wilson (27:27.468) So a road to the world tour has been our tagline through the season just gone. And I think we've really proven that, that time of the year, the high level competition, the eyeballs that were on it, the pressure situation really shone the riders, the riders shone that had the potential and all these big overseas teams saw that and they picked up those riders. it's a great opportunity for riders to come out and race.

in a pressure cooker situation like that over a 10 week period, hit the ground running in Europe and hopefully get a couple of results and get their name on the scoreboard.

Is that why you do all this?

Essentially, yeah, I've been involved in cycling my whole life, 30 years now. So in one way or another as a rider, as a director, as an event owner, or as even in management for a little while with riders as well. And yeah, I'm passionate about Australian cycling and young riders and development. So this is a critical piece of that.

Good on you. Yeah, so quickly on our team. I'm getting a little bit excited now because I've been so focused on trying to bring in money, but I mentioned to you offline that I was riding with a Cobra 9 rider the other day who lives locally. Side by side, Liam's his name and he said, oh, who's in your team? And I started to rattle off some names and he was like, oh, you're going to have a really strong team next year. I'm like, are we? Oh, that's really cool. So we've got Ryan Thomas, who's the head coach of the RCA and he's going to be our director sportiff, but he's also going to race.

Cam Nicholls (29:02.286) I know you know Ryan Welbs, was the road captain for your team for many years.

Yeah, he's with the Australian Cycling Academy, I don't know, three or four years and even directed a couple of races, I think, as he was retiring there. Yeah, very experienced guy. You've got a good one there in Rhino.

Yeah, um, well he goes 26 this year, next year actually, so he's peak sprinting age. he won Turulankawi as well with you guys.

Yeah. Yeah. Super talented sprinter. Um, I think he's again with us about three or four years. Yeah. We go. Um, so yeah, super talent. can, you can win every bunch of kicky he starts. Um, if you can get to the front and get a clear run at it. Um, so yeah, I'm sure you'll get, get, get you a win or two.

Yeah, Dylan Proctor Parker, he was one of yours as well.

Matt Wilson (29:51.182) Yeah, did two years with us Dylan overseas. Yeah, very talented young rider from Victoria

Yeah, and the ones that haven't come through your team is Alex Baker, Josh Bekoff, I hope I've said his surname correctly there, Brent Reese, who's more on the mountain biker side, and Matthew Lamberts, our old boy, he's late 30s, got a couple of kids, got a full-time job, and people are telling him he's a smokey, maybe to win a few stages and do quite well in his late 30s. So that's kind of a cool one for us, because a lot of our members are

between the ages of 35 and 65 and have that kind of busy lifestyle. So to see a guy like him competing at that level, I think is gonna be pretty cool, although he's obviously a genetic freak. So that comes into it.

See up there at, was it Q2? Yeah.

Yeah, he came fourth overall, So he's a strong guy. And in terms of sponsors, we've got bikes online who provide Polygon bikes. So the boys will be riding the Polygon Helios. Pimped up with Creative Carbons, another one of our partners. So they offer carbon wheels, integrated bars, Asioma. So all the boys are going to be running Asioma power pedals.

Cam Nicholls (31:02.41) Insta360, so you know we're hoping based off of the commissaire that we can run the the 360s they'll be attached to the bikes and All the riders will be instructed to turn them on with an hour to go in each race So hopefully we'll have six guys, know getting six different perspectives and we should get some pretty good footage out of that we feel Then we've got some minor sponsors. So one cloud X They're a net suite partner based in the Gold Coast that they provide

ER enterprise resource planning, software solutions to small to medium businesses. Stanard's accounting, so they're an accounting firm based in Melbourne. Used to sponsor actually Inform. Pete's a mate of mine, he's a partner at Stanard, so great to have them on board. Prungo, they're a red light therapy device, so they've just come on board actually just overnight. And Fix Nutrition is another one, so they're all getting behind us. The one that kind of blows me away a little bit when I read the list,

I think because my world, I've been in YouTube for a long time and I did a lot of content on Chinese branded bikes for quite a while when it was emerging. And I got a lot of criticism from Australians about talking about Chinese owned and branded bikes. So it's kind of ironic to see Insta360 like they're a Chinese company, head HQ in China, sponsoring an Australian cycling team, giving us product and cash, which is pretty cool.

Fantastic. Look, the sponsorship world is, it's a tough world and it's getting tougher. So yeah, good on you for pulling together those partners in a short space of time. It's a good list.

Yeah. Hopefully we can deliver. All right, Matt. Well, thank you very much for your time. Much appreciated. I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Matt Wilson. If you're after more details on the Pro Velo Super League, you can head to their website. It's ProVeloSuperLeague.com and Pro Velo is P-R-O-V-E-L-O. And of course, if you're interested in following the RCA Bikes Online

Matt Wilson (32:44.118) No worries, thank you.

Cam Nicholls (33:06.93) cycling team that will be participating in the Pro Velo in 2026. Just stay tuned on our main channels. We'll soon be pointing you in the direction of how you can follow along and what you can do to just support the team from afar just with your eyeballs. That would be greatly appreciated. We'll catch you in the next podcast.