Hello, come on in, you’re not late at all – professional cycling’s ideas symposium has only just started. Let me take your jacket, and do get comfy on one of our beanbags. Over there, practising his three-pointers, that’s Tomas Van Den Spiegel, the head of Flanders Classics, while next to him, rehearsing his next speech is UCI president David Lappartient. There’s a rumour that Yann Le Moenner, the CEO of Tour de France organisers ASO, might turn up, but it seems unlikely, he doesn’t need to be here. Don’t worry, there are lots of things to excite.
Vincenzo Nibali, four-time Grand Tour winner, will be revealing his idea in a bit for the three men’s Grand Tours to be put on a giant lazy Susan, which slowly rotates each year. When it comes to a halt, we’ll be able to see if the Tour de France will be in August next year, or the Giro d’Italia in its traditional May slot. It’s nice that he has wiped the cake crumbs off and brought the prop along. ASO are never going to give up their July spot, but hey, we love lazy Susan.
News editor at Cycling Weekly, Adam brings his weekly opinion on the goings on at the upper echelons of our sport. This piece is part of The Leadout, a newsletter series from Cycling Weekly and Cyclingnews. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here. As ever, email adam.becket@futurenet.com – should you wish to add anything, or suggest a topic.
Following him will be world champion Tadej Pogačar, who will be debating switching the Giro with the Vuelta a España in the calendar with the owners of the former. It seems a pretty futile debate, though, given RCS Sport CEO Paolo Bellino has already said: “We’re not even going to think about the idea.” But, hey, it will still be entertaining.
Later, Mark Cavendish has been invited to expand on his theory that “there are revenue streams that aren’t being properly utilised”. We will also have time to have a roundtable on the number of UCI points available at stage and one-day races, and former Arkéa-B&B Hotels manager Jérôme Pineau will host a seminar on charging fans to watch the Tour on Alpe d’Huez next year. What a day.
Wait, you’re leaving? I haven’t even had time to tell you about our fringe programme, full of talks on One Cycling and TV rights, that might be the most interesting bit. Is it too overwhelming? Am I being too intense? You only really like the Tour de France really and were tempted in by Tadej Pogačar? It’s understandable.
Pro cycling’s issues are profound, too much to fix all at once, whether in this imaginary conference or in this opinion column, but they are also very obvious. Given there is no road racing really going on at the moment, and we’re in a quiet period for news, a lot of hot air is being spent on fixing cycling. All of the above are real stories, by the way, apart from Nibali bringing in his lazy Susan. The Italian proposed a rotation of the Grand Tours, but in theory, not reality; I would love to see the calendar decided in a stage show, though. Away from my flight of fancy, switching the Giro and Vuelta would potentially be a good thing, especially environmentally, but it isn’t enough.
It is a cliché by now that if you were to build a professional sport, you would not make pro cycling. The confusing tiers of racing, the dominating nature of the Tour de France, racing overlapping and intertwining, the late attention given to women’s cycling, the lack of a sustainable business model for teams, the bias towards Europe… It is overwhelming, and a topic that has been discussed ad nauseam.
This year saw a proposed revolution fail, or at least be checked. One Cycling, an idea developed behind the scenes by some of the sport’s top stakeholders, proposed a ‘super league’ restructure to elite racing, with the goal of creating new revenue streams. It was expected to be funded by Saudi Arabia, but it was rejected by the UCI as “incompatible” and “lacking sporting coherence”.
Ethical concerns over the money aside, the revolution probably is needed. However, it was always unlikely to get off the ground without the buy-in from ASO, and thus the Tour de France. In order for proper change to happen, the French company would have to share some of its market share and profits around, something which feels improbable. TV rights money should be parcelled out to teams, as should these other “revenue streams” which Cavendish thinks are out there. As it is, even if fans were charged to watch the Tour on Alpe d’Huez, it would just mean more money for ASO, not for cycling as a whole.
The sport is bloated, and confusing, and feels very similar to cycling 30 years ago. In order for it to become better, money would have to be shared and a small group of people would have to vote for themselves to be worse off. Until the stark reality of cycling’s future is clear to all, or until the teams come together as one group and leverage their power, then it will just continue on its merry way. This winter, the end of Arkéa-B&B Hotels and CERATIZIT, and the Intermarché-Lotto merger should have sharpened minds, but nothing dramatic has happened yet. Perhaps because such changes are a semi-regular occurrence
Most proposed changes to the sport are just cosmetic, moving the chairs around the deck of the Titanic while it sinks. Pro cycling is far from doomed, it has a rich history and dedicated following, but changing it seems as inexorably difficult, like changing course on a cruise liner bound for an iceberg. Still, talking about the issue is a start – do come back into the symposium. We just need something concrete in order to reshape the sport.
This piece is part of The Leadout, the offering of newsletters from Cycling Weekly and Cyclingnews. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here.
If you want to get in touch with Adam, email adam.becket@futurenet.com.
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