CCACHE x Par Küp (pronounced ‘kaysh-par-koop’) is the new Sydney-based squad that emerged out of the near ashes of Oliver’s Real Food Racing team, the seven-year combination of team and sponsor a rarity in longevity in the local men's cycling scene.
The vibrant green of Oliver’s topped podiums in National Road Series races across Asia and even in little-known tours in the Pacific, in Tahiti and New Caledonia.
Throughout that time, it has been Sam Layzell at the head of affairs as the sports director, manager, and occasional rider for the team, and he returns for the new project as now one of the most experienced directors on the local men's scene, only behind Brett Dutton and Andrew Christie-Johnston in terms of being in continuous management of a team.
“I don’t know if they knew what they were doing putting me in front of the TV and the SBS Tour de France highlights… if they knew that they were creating the monster that would be so obsessed with cycling,” Layzell said while paying tribute to his parents at the season launch in the bike shop of team sponsor CCACHE.
The new-look team boasts an impressive roster, particularly in the sprinting department with two Under-23 Criterium champions and National Road Series (NRS) stage winners in Matt Rice and Graeme Frislie headlining an impressive group of sprinters that includes the Eather brothers (Kurt and Dylan) and powerhouse Kai Chapman.
Just those names alone look set to win a swathe of races during the season, but there are a number of riders with a lot of potential peppering the line-up with James Moriarty, who won the bronze medal in the Commonwealth Games teams pursuit alongside Frislie, and young climber Will Heffernan joining the stalwarts from past Oliver’s teams.
The exciting bit of squad-building and bringing a strong team of riders together isn’t accomplished without plenty of hard graft elsewhere though, done for little to no restitution.
This fell partly on the shoulders of Edwin Britts, the 22-year-old CCACHE bikeshop mechanic and rider who was responsible for bringing the new sponsors on board when Oliver’s indicated that they wouldn’t be continuing with sponsorship.
“It’s been a very long road getting here,” Britts said from the CCACHE shop at the team launch. “Oliver’s, the team, was in a very dire place six months ago. I’ve always had a pretty close relationship with Sam, we were talking about it quite openly.
“I’d been on the team for two years and I really didn’t get much racing because it pretty much died straight away with COVID-19 and I thought, ‘I’m not ready to let this die’. I went out and found the two title sponsors of the team and a couple of others, and now – a long road later – here we are continuing.”
The search for sponsorship is often long and fruitless at the local level, even WorldTour squads know the fickleness of relying on sponsorship in changing economic climates, and it was a few local approaches that secured the new team’s chance to race in 2023.
Britts went ultra local, recruiting his bike shop CCACHE, which is looking to branch out in 2023 and add new locations, and a new cycling kit company Par Küp, born out of the ‘park-up’ phenomenon at cafes.
“I knew Bo (Hinzack) through servicing his bike here at CCACHE, and I really liked his kit, so I brought it up to him one day after working on his bike, whether he could provide our kit,” Britts said. “It was actually him that asked to explore if we could take it further and take up the naming rights for the team. Obviously, I work at CCACHE, so I worked a pretty good deal getting them on board as well.
“No one brand is big enough to fully support a team, but with the two, I think it’s a perfect union between two brands with an online presence and good integration.”
“For us, it’s an opportunity as a new company to get some exposure and be part of grassroots cycling, it was a no-brainer for us,” added Bo Hinzack, head of Par Küp, who also owns coffee shop Showbox Coffee Brewers on Sydney’s Northern Beaches.
With a solid, if modest grounding, CCACHE x Par Küp is setting their sights on making an impact immediately in Australia, hitting the ground running as a team at the Bay Crits (shown live on the SBS Sport Facebook and Youtube pages) before taking on the nationals and the New Zealand Cycle Classic.
From there, it’s National Road Series racing and Asian continental events that the team is hoping to secure invites for, with the squad investing in the UCI Continental team status.
“Oliver’s has historically been a Continental team, so for us to continue that is major,” Britts said. “To get the sponsors out there in an international sphere is important for us.
“We’ve applied for pretty much the whole Asian calendar, so we need to see what we get back in terms of responses, but I think we’ll have some really big races on the schedule. We might even have some European races, but that’s not the focus, as we don’t want to overextend, we’d much rather build something that’s sustainable.”
At the team launch there were plenty of people milling around, the normal friends and family, sponsors and connections, but also plenty of people from the Sydney cycling scene interested in checking out the new setup.
“I’m stoked that we have a team that looks as good as this and is this well supported, particularly with the teams folding due to the pressures of COVID-19 and what that did for bike racing,” said Britts in the midst of it all.
“It’s great to see everyone rallying around to make this team come together.”
CCACHE x Par Küp 2023 squad:
- Ryan Britten
- Edwin Britts
- Kai Chapman
- Fintan Conway
- Brendon Davids
- Dylan Eather
- Kurt Eather
- Graeme Frislie
- Devraj Grewal
- William Heffernan
- Campbell Jones
- Daniel Luke
- Thomas Lynch
- Karl Michelin-Beard
- James Moriarty
- Bentley Niquet-Olden
- Oliver Penney
- Matthew Rice
- Liam White
