England cricket player Matt Prior "has co-founded the new professional One Pro Cycling team," according to the BBC.
The 32-year-old, who took a break from the England set-up in the summer to recover from injury, said that "cycling was a 'huge passion' of his." One Pro Cycling "aims to compete at UCI Continental level, two tiers below Team Sky." Prior:
"It's a big challenge. We could potentially do something very special and that excites me" (BBC, 12/9). In London, Pam Nash reported Prior "has set about living up to his self-appointed nickname by becoming the 'Big Cheese' at his own professional cycling team."
Rather than being cowed by the scorn heaped on him by Kevin Pietersen, his former England teammate, for his passion for cycling, Prior "has instead poured his enthusiasm into setting up the ONE Pro Cycling." The 12-rider squad is led by Yanto Barker, who is well-known on the U.K. circuit, and features a number of riders who came through the British Cycling set-up, including Jonny Bellis, Jon Mould and George Atkins.
Prior "was ridiculed by Pietersen for taking a bike on tour to New Zealand," who wrote in KP: The Autobiography: “You don’t need to take your bike with you. They have bikes in New Zealand. Who the hell takes a bike?" (LONDON TIMES, 12/9).
