Time for Cycling to Look Across the Pond
Rumors of serious shake ups in the cycling world have been rampant this year. “Remco is going to team Ineos”. “Wout is joining team Lefevre”. If you believe today’s rumor, this last one actually may be true, as “Jumbo-Visma and Quickstep are merging”. The world of cycling is turning into a Formula One circus.
This is one of the golden ages of cycling. Impressive young riders are making the sport attractive for television with their exuberant and attacking riding style. Netflix is putting a spotlight on the behind the scenes drama. Women cycling is equally fascinating and gaining in popularity. There are races year around with lots of young men and women competing in them.
And yet, new money should be pouring into the sport and giving oxygen to many new teams. That is not happening. Instead of consolidating around a few super teams like UAE, Jumbo-Visma, or Ineos, let’s share the richness.
Jumbo-Visma winning the three grand tours - the first time any team achieves this - is not a victory for the sport. It is a trophy in the trophy case in ’s-Hertogenbosch.
Let’s look across the pond at basketball in the US. In the seventies, this was a third tier sport with lots of fights on and off the court. Nobody thought it was worth investing. Jerry Bush and the LA Lakers changed that. After the dominance of the LA Lakers and Boston Celtics was finally broken by Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. All three were super teams. After the interim years of Shaq and Kobe, the sport changed dramatically. Nowadays, there are so many great players and many teams with a strong bench. Having a star studded team like my Golden Gate Warriors is no longer a guarantee for winning the championship anymore. The winner of it all is basketball and the NBA.
By contrast, let’s consider European soccer. A few big teams underwritten by oil money and creative financial constructions dominate the sport. Other teams content themselves as talent feeder clubs. Let’s write it down once more: Manchester City, Bayern Munchen, Real Madrid, Ajax, and Paris St Germain will win their respective leagues. Juventus is having some “Italian” problems. How boring has this all become?
Cycling should take a page from the NBA playbook and broaden the sport. Through salary caps and the equivalent of a draft, let’s build separate tour teams around Vinegard, Roglic, Evenepoel or Thomas and classic teams around Wout, Mathieu or Mads. There is lots to gain in the long run from a wide peloton. The next months will tell which direction the UCI will steer (pun intended) the sport.