The Boels Dolmans Cycling Team, the world's number one women's team, announced Thursday that its co-title sponsor will end its contract at the end of 2020, at the Majestic Hotel in downtown Harrogate, where the UCI Road World Championships are being held, press At the press conference, director Danny Stam said he is confident that the team will find a new sponsor and will continue to build the program.

"We are confident that we will find a new sponsor," Stam said. We are in negotiations [with a sponsor], but nothing is certain until we sign a deal." There are potential sponsors who are interested in taking on our team."

Boels Dolmans has been the most successful women's team in recent years; it has been the number one women's team in the world since 2015 and has won the elite women's road race world championship four years in a row: with Lizzie Deignan, Amalie Dideriksen and Chantal Black, Anna van der Breggen.

Asked if he would accept a reduction in the budget, Stamm said "no."

"With a smaller budget we would be going backwards. We are ready now to take the next step. With all due respect to Bohl and Dolman, it was always a Dutch team. I think we need to think about the international team. We want to take steps. If we want to take steps, we need to be bigger."

Stam said he plans to grow the team beyond 2020, aiming to have 18 players on the roster, enough to field two teams on the Women's World Tour and at other international events during the season. He understands that his ambitions seem big, given that he is looking for new sponsors.

"We have to show what kind of ambitions we have. When we talk to potential new sponsors, we also need to explain where we want to go with our team." Our team is growing fast and we need to continue. If we want to be part of the growth of women's cycling, we need to say we need to offer a better deal: ...... We need a double team." [Trek-Segafredo, Mitchelton-Scott, and Movistar have had great success in their first year of racing. Stamm said she has never been approached by a men's team to join the program, but hopes her team will remain as a stand-alone women's program.

"At this point, we haven't had any interest from the men's team, so that's not an issue," she said. And in normal life we talk about independent women and we want to grow on our own,"

"We are not a team of men, we are a team of women, we are a team of women. We can be an independent women's team and still be number one. We always try to be able to handle ourselves, to show that we are an independent women's sport."

Ahead of the elite women's road race in Yorkshire, defending world champion Anna van der Breggen said she believes it is time for change. She said women's cycling is growing, more money is being put into the sport, more live TV, more races, and the UCI is introducing more professionalism on the women's side. Stamm agreed with Van der Breggen, noting that now is a good time for sponsors to enter the sport.

"Boels and Dolmans jumped into the sport nine years ago and have seen it develop. 'The margins are still growing, and if you jump in now, you can get started for a really good amount of money.' If you want to be part of it, you need to do it now. A lot of men's teams like Trek, Mitchelton, and Movistar own women's teams, but if you want to have a brand (independent women's program) to show your name, this is it."

The UCI released a list of the eight teams that make up the top level (WorldTeams) of its new two-tier system, but the Boels Dolmans team was noticeably missing from that list. Stamm said he applied for a license, but his application was denied because he could not offer a four-year guarantee given that Boels and Dolmans' contract ends in 2020.

"At the first meeting, I applied for the World Tour, but ran into a rule that said I had to apply for a four-year license," Stamm said.

"And Stamm said, 'I was told that without a four-year future [guarantee], I couldn't apply for the World Tour.'"

The UCI last year announced reforms to the Women's World Tour, including a two-tier system along with minimum salaries, insurance, and other measures to improve the professionalism of women's cycling; when asked if a four-year guarantee would be too difficult for women's teams, Stam said "no."

"I think it's a good idea.

"I think everyone knows about the regulations that apply from the UCI. "We knew the regulations, too, but we offered the UCI that we wanted to participate in the World Tour despite the four-year issue, and the UCI decides the rules. That was no exception for us. But I am in favor of the four-year guarantee because it will help the women's team provide longer support, a bigger future.

Even if Boels Dolmans is no longer a top-level world team in 2020, Stamm sees no problem with being invited to all races on the Women's World Tour. She also intends to participate at the world team level in the future.

"They [organizers] have to invite us. There are only eight teams in the World Tour next year, and we can't make a race with only eight teams. They need to invite the first team in the UCI rankings, but as long as we are at that top level, we have nothing to worry about." But by 2022 there will be 15 world teams, and for the sake of our image we need to be among the WorldTour teams in an instant, and if it weren't for the problems with the four-year contracts we would be there next year."