Felipe Orts happy with decision to create his own team: "Riding with the name of my own village on my chest is a very big responsibility"

La Vila Joiosa-Neteo is Felipe Orts' new cyclocross team. A one-man team, the Spanish champion has built a team himself and is from the 1st of January onwards carrying new colours on the cyclocross field.

“I owe almost everything I am to cyclocross and cycling in the Netherlands and Belgium. I have made cyclocross racing my specialty, a sport in which I am a reference," Orts said in words to Wielerflits. "This means I can have an important impact for my sponsors in those two countries. When I decided to leave Burgos-BH, we thought: 'who would be interested in sponsoring our project?'. We then started looking for Spanish companies that were looking for brand awareness and product promotion in Belgium and the Netherlands... For me, riding with the name of my own village on my chest is a very big responsibility."

Orts is the reigning Spanish national champion and so it is not immediately recognizable his change in gear, but for him it is a massive difference. This also symbolizes more freedom for himself, and he is looking to expand his schedule away from just cyclocross, and instead of focusing on the road as a secondary program he will do Mountain Biking.

“My goals for 2024 are changing. In my first year I want to ride as many MTB and gravel races in Spain as possible," he continues. "The idea is to run a more international program in both disciplines from 2025. It could even be that we direct my career towards the 2028 Olympic Games, where I would like to compete in mountain biking. That is still on the table at the moment, but we will have to tap a number of economic sources for this.”