When it seemed that the waters had calmed down after a turbulent end to the season with frustrated mergers, signings and other movements, the world of road cycling is shaken again with rumors of a Cycling Super League project, in the image of the one they tried to impose in the world of football.
This time in reference to an old demand of the teams to be more participants in the benefits of the races that today fall largely on their organizers, with ASO, the company responsible for the Tour de France and other major events on the calendar. such as Paris-Roubaix, Paris-Nice or Critérium du Dauphine to name a few, this competition is being prepared.
According to information published by Reuters, five major teams, which would be headed by INEOS Grenadiers and Jumbo-Visma, are in talks to create a Cycling Super League, in clear reference to the attempt to seek a paradigm shift carried out at the time by several football teams, with the same objective: that the benefits generated by the races fall to a greater extent on them.
Currently, most of the benefits fall on the organizers, especially with regard to television rights, with the teams depending almost exclusively on the contributions of their sponsors. Within the organizers, very few cover the vast majority of the important races, actually three. On the one hand the ASO-Unipublic duo and on the other the RCS group that organizes the Giro d’Italia and the main events in that country.
The reality is that this is still a war between the teams and these organizers who, after all, are the most important races, the only ones that generate profits. A Cycling Super League would surely be the finishing touch to the bulk of the races on the calendar, often organized by small entities and which, usually, by covering costs they can already be satisfied.
A damage similar to that which occurred in its day with the arrival of the World Tour and which condemned many historical events to disappearance, unable from that moment on to meet the economic requirements that were set for a top-level event.
Also, as is happening in the world of football, large investment funds such as EY or CVC Partners would be behind this project, the latter being the de facto owner of Formula 1, which today already play an important role in the world. of the ball and would thus continue to spread their tentacles throughout the sport.
It is not the first time that teams have rebelled against this order established since the dawn of cycling. In fact, in 2012 several teams reached an agreement to create what was then called the World Cycling Series, which ultimately did not come to fruition.
It is also not known how this competition would be structured or what races would be part of it, although according to Reuters, it would include existing races and other newly created ones.
Source: www.brujulabike.com