Pegasus Racing (Image credit: Pegasus Racing Pty Ltd)
Cyclingnews has learned that Cycling Australia is maintaining management of the 2011 Pegasus Racing bank guarantee which under normal circumstances should have been released on March 31 this year.
The funds, believed to be in the order of around $30,000 were put in place as part of the team's 2011 licence, as is standard across UCI professional teams. Pegasus Racing, operating as V Australia folded at the end of the 2011 season after the airline informed team CEO Chris White that financial sponsorship would not continue and a confidential payout was then negotiated.
It followed 18 months of turmoil whereby applications for both a ProTour and Professional Continental licence, under Pegasus Sport, were rejected by the UCI, with White settling to run a race program in Australia, the USA and Asia. The 2011 season was run on the sniff of an oily rag. The opportunity for the team to appear at races dwindled and so did the race wins. V Australia, with a significantly reduced schedule of 145 race days, tallied 25 victories – a comparatively small amount when you consider the team amassed over 250 race wins over the three years of their existence.
According to UCI regulations, if a creditor calls upon the bank guarantee and the team raises an objection within the next month, "the national federation shall pay the sum at issue into a special account and shall subsequently distribute it in accordance with any agreement reached between the parties or according to an enforceable legal decision."
Cycling Australia in this case has chosen to relax the deadline within a certain degree with the dispute between White and his creditor on-going.
It is Cyclingnews' understanding that the funds will be released back to Pegasus Racing on September 8 by Cycling Australia.
Late last month, it was revealed that White was being sued by his former business partner in Pegasus Racing for alleged corporations offences.
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Cyclingnews has contacted White, his creditor and Cycling Australia but none offered comment.
As a sports journalist and producer since 1997, Jane has covered Olympic and Commonwealth Games, rugby league, motorsport, cricket, surfing, triathlon, rugby union, and golf for print, radio, television and online. However her enduring passion has been cycling.
Jane is a former Australian Editor of Cyclingnews from 2011 to 2013 and continues to freelance within the cycling industry.
