"I am very satisfied that I met the goals I set for the team" - owner of collapsing team EF Education-TIBCO Linda Jackson on the evolution of women cycling in past years

At a time when women's cycling seems as though it's on a steady ascent, there have been some casualties along the way. The Women's Tour was cancelled due to a lack of sponsorship, as was the Colorado Classic and the Women’s WorldTour race Vårgårda West Sweden road race and team time trial.

But perhaps the greatest blow came from the announcement that longtime race team EF Education-Tibco-SVB would be folding at the end of the 2023 season. Longtime team owner Linda Jackson looked for an alternative solution, but couldn't find another alternative fast enough.

Jackson recalls her first memory of the foundation of the team in an interview for Bicycling. "I think it was December of 2004: we were looking for sponsorship and one of the riders called me up and said 'Linda, I found a sponsor for the team! His name is Vivek Ranadive and he started a company called TIBCO… I told him it was $5,000 to sponsor the team.' I called Vivek, talked his CMO up to I believe $15,000 that year, and the team was on its way."

"I am very satisfied that I met the goals I set for the team. We never set out to be the top team in the world. My mission was to provide a platform for talented women to become top international competitors, and we did that. Then the Women’s WorldTour came along and my WTW goal was to become a top 5 team. I think we could have done that in the next several years. We finally had assembled a core group of talented women that we were ready to build on for 2024 when the floor fell out from under us."