Sporting Lisbon will return to the elite of cycling after an absence of almost 30 years. The football club which shut down its cycling section in 1987 and since then only has had a U23 team between 2009 and 2011, has announced that it will return to the peloton in 2016 by joining forces with the current W52-Quinta da Lixa in a two-year agreement. Gustavo César Veloso, winner of the last two editions of the Volta ao Portugal, will lead the Continental team.

W52 will remain the main sponsor and the headquarters will remain in the village of Sobrado, but the jersey will have the charismatic green and white colours. The team which will be presented on January 3, has Maximino Pereira as manager and former rider Nuno Ribeiro as technical director.

"There are young people in the team jerseys at the Volta ao Portugal. Cycling can be an attraction of the public that the club needs. We have many fans and many of them live far from Lisbon. It is a sport that is in the memory of all of Gijon and is part of the club's history," said club vice president Vicente Moura about the reason for the return to the sport.

Like many other football clubs at the time, Sporting Lisbon started in cycling in 1911 under the management of António Soares Junior, who would become club president. With good infrastructure, including the Lisbon Stadium and the José Alvalde velodrome, the team catapulted the legendary Joaquim Agostinho to Tour de France success and has nine victories in the Volta ao Portugal under its belt.

The team has something to defend as they have won the three latest editions of the Portuguese tour: two with Gustavo Cesar Veloso and one with Alejandro Marque in 2013. In addition to Veloso, Samuel Caldeira, Raul Alarcon, Rui Vinhas, António Carvalho, Joaquim Silva, Angel Rebollido, Juan Ignacio Perez and three riders to be announced later will make up the 2016 team.