Six years after its foundation in Baar, Winforce suddenly appears in the musettes of a WorldTour team. According to a Sportguide report from 2013, the Swiss sports nutrition brand was supplying RadioShack Leopard Trek around 2012 — the team that Fabian Cancellara was leading to the Monuments at the time.
RadioShack Leopard Trek is one of the biggest names in the peloton in 2012. Cancellara wins Paris–Roubaix that year. The Schleck brothers attack in the Grand Tours. For a boutique manufacturer from Switzerland, which until then had mainly supplied ultra-cycling specialists and skiers, the collaboration is of a different caliber — even if the exact terms of the contract are not clear from the Sportguide report.
IAM Cycling — the Swiss counterpart
In parallel, also according to the Sportguide report from 2013, Winforce has IAM Cycling under contract. The Swiss Professional Continental Team is the most ambitious domestic team of those years. For Winforce, IAM Cycling means something different to RadioShack: a sponsorship match across national borders has always been easier when the other side speaks the same language.
The picture is rounded off by Multivan Merida Biking, one of the most successful mountain bike teams in the world, which, according to the same source, is also being supplied by Winforce at this time. Road cycling and MTB at the same time — the manufacturer covers both disciplines without committing to one.
Assessment
A single article from 2013 is the basis for this information. The source does not mention exact contract periods, product ranges or figures. What can be said, however: Winforce entered the WorldTour arena for the first time around 2012 — as a small Swiss manufacturer in an environment dominated by international nutrition groups. The partnership with Groupama-FDJ, which followed around ten years later, was built on a foundation that was laid during this period.