Four years ago Bolton Equities Black Spoke started out as a form of cycling academy to help give Kiwi riders a leg up into bigger and better teams, next season they become one of those bigger and better teams joining the Pro Tour, the first New Zealand team to do so.

“We’re now racing against the best riders in the world, every weekend, every week” says James Oram, one of the team’s original riders.

“Our races will be on TV, our friends and family can turn on the TV and watch us race [in Europe] which is huge.”

The Pro Tour is like the Formula Two of road cycling, it sits below UCI’s World Tour but allows teams to step up to the top tier through invitations to the world’s biggest events and Grand Tours.

Already the team has been invited to compete at January’s Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race in Geelong near Melbourne, the first time in history a Kiwi team will line up at a World Tour event.

It’s not just access to bigger races that comes with being one of 16 teams accepted onto the Pro Tour, from 12 riders this season they’re now required to employ 20 riders with a minimum season wage of $46,0000.

Scott Guyton, the team’s General Manager says it’s a huge step up in resource and investment with Black Spoke now effectively running a double programme with 10 staff, “we could be in two continents, racing two different teams” he adds.

Kiwi rich lister Murray Bolton has bankrolled the multi-million dollar project through Bolton Equities, an investment that’s not lost on the cyclists.

“We wouldn’t be here without the fact that he’s super enthusiastic about seeing young Kiwis on the world stage” says the team’s highest profile rider, four-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist Aaron Gate.

“The fact that we can have a team of predominantly New Zealanders racing some of the biggest races on the world stage is pretty exciting.”

Eighty percent of the team next season will be local talent and the team is changing the pathway for young riders.

Oram remembers how someone like kiwi Tour de France rider George Bennett started out.

“[He] flew to France, didn’t speak a lick of French, stole bread from a bakery down the road to make it to the top tier and look where he is now. So, if we create that opportunity for a rider like the next George, to skip two years, think how much better a rider they’ll be."

Veteran Gate agrees “the opportunity that these young guys have got is definitely something I wish I had when I was ten years younger so to finally get it now is cool.”

The step up in division has had to be earned, stage and general classification wins along with other performances in Europe helped Black Spoke finish top of 185 Continental Teams this season, even beating some of the current Pro Tour teams.

“We're really starting to show our way overseas and teams and race organisers are looking at Kiwi riders, they’re not scared to race, the boys get stuck in, do well in the hard races” explains Guyton.

And while a Tour de France start is probably unlikely this year, Bolton Equities Black Spoke is now in the perfect position to one day make that a reality.