The Drops Cycling Team announced Monday that it has partnered with Women's Sports Group to secure new sponsorship funding to apply for a three-year Women's World Team license beginning in 2021.

"Women's Sports Group has been very active in helping us secure the necessary funding to apply for a three-year World Tour license beginning in 2021. There is a minimum salary, maternity rights, medical support, and full-time staff," team director Bob Barney told Cycling News.

Printing business owners Bob and Tom Varney launched the Drops Cycling Team in 2016, which has become one of the most successful development programs in women's cycling, bringing in riders from 13 countries as well as British talent.

They now want to take the team up a notch to the new top tier of women's cycling, the WorldTeam. Moving up from the Continental Team to the WorldTeam will require more funding. The sport's governing body, the UCI, initially stipulated a four-year sponsorship guarantee, a minimum salary of €15,000 (employed) or €24,600 (self-employed), social insurance, and benefits such as maternity leave.

"Tom and I have taken our project as far as we can and are offering full title sponsorship and brand rights to promote our program to the next level, the UCI Women's World Tour. We accept the requirements of a minimum salary, maternity rights, medical support, and full-time staff, and we are embarrassed that we have not been able to provide these in the past," Varney said in a press release last month.

The new two-tier women's team system went into effect in January and now has eight WorldTeams: Mitchelton Scott, Canyon SRAM, Alley BTC Ljubljana, CCC-Liv, FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope, Movistar Team Women, Team Sunweb, Trek Segafredo.

Over the next three years, the UCI aims to gradually increase the number of women's world teams to 15 and set a minimum annual salary equivalent to the men's Professional Continental, which is currently set at €30,855.

"The minimum funding required for a women's World Tour license is €1 million per year, secured through a three-year contract with an ethical and financially established sponsor. Management of an international activation campaign can be provided along with a worldwide racing program with guaranteed television coverage," Bob Varney said in a press release.

Drops Cycling acknowledged that stepping up to the women's WorldTeam license was its biggest challenge and appointed Women's Sports Group to secure the necessary funding.

According to the team's press release, the Women's Sports Group, founded by Dame Heather Rabbatts, DBE, was created to create new opportunities to promote, strengthen, and empower women in sport.

"Since its launch, Drops has consistently worked to improve women's cycling and there is great potential for the team to grow both competitively and commercially. It has struck a chord with fans and has already established itself as one of the most recognizable teams in women's cycling," Labatz said.

"Women's cycling is one of the fastest growing sports, not only due to the increase in global participation, but also due to increased global media exposure. We look forward to working with Drops to secure new investments for the team."

This season has been particularly challenging for companies, sponsors, and teams due to the COVID-19 coronavirus; after a five-month shutdown, racing officially resumed at the end of July, under strict UCI sanitary guidelines and protocols. Varney noted that the initial cost of conducting viral testing of staff and riders prior to the event was estimated at €25,000 for the remainder of the season

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"To cover some of these additional costs, we have started selling team-issued supporters' packs in the store section of this site. All proceeds will be used to keep the team safe and racing during this unprecedented time," the team said in a press release.

While the sport was suspended due to COVID-19 health precautions, April Teasy won two stages of the Virtual Tour de France.

Now that the season has restarted, the Drops Cycling team will concentrate on the national championships in the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden later this month, followed by the Tour d'Ardèche in France. After that, the team will host several one-day races in Belgium and northern France before preparing for its classic campaign in October.