The Bigla Katusha team has announced that its riders and staff have been paid in full for the month of April after both title sponsors abruptly cut off financial support last month.

The team worked with the UCI and Swiss Cycling to release the bank guarantee (a pre-season deposit consisting of 25% of team salaries, available in the event of financial difficulties) to make up the shortfall in payments. [Last week, with the support of the UCI and Swiss Cycling, the bank guarantee was successfully lifted.

"Furthermore, we would like to thank the international cycling community for their generous support of our crowdfunding campaign. As a result of these steps, we were able to pay 100% of the salaries to our riders and staff for the month of April." We will endeavor to continue to do so whenever possible.

Last month, the team released a statement revealing that both title sponsors had informed them of their intention not to continue paying sponsorships. Bigla "wants to withdraw most of its regular payments," and Katusha had already "refused to make payments to the team for the past month."

In response, team CEO Prisca Doppmann Campana issued a statement saying that the team would seek access to bank guarantees, launch a "fan support program," aka crowdfunding campaign (opens in new tab), and that the team would pursue new sponsorship opportunities He stated that the team will pursue.

In addition to the UCI bank guarantee, the team has raised CHF 7,999 (£6,667) through crowdfunding from 84 backers since launching the Gofundme campaign on April 28.

"Through our actions, we hope that our title partners Bigla and Katusha will recognize this team's continued dedication to its values and ongoing pursuit of sporting success, despite difficult times, and work with us to find solutions to the current situation. We hope you will," the team's statement concludes.

Before the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic interrupted races around the world, the team had won four races in the 2020 season.