Breaking Away - "Top cycling teams explore creating new competitive league"

[pastronef]

One-Cycling promoters just got a big bump by the Mallorca stage cancellation last week and today's Besseges mess

 

[pastronef]

the Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) will sponsor the the maglia rosa.

The 2 names will be One Cycling e SURJ Sports Investment

 

[Berniece]

the Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) will sponsor the the maglia rosa.

The 2 names will be One Cycling e SURJ Sports Investment

Great, so RCS is on board with the plans. They are starting to get a decent group of races for it.

 

[pastronef]

Great, so RCS is on board with the plans. They are starting to get a decent group of races for it.

I had no doubts RCS would be the first to agree to the plans

 

[Netserk]

Thank God ASO is so powerful. The least bad player and with the longest term stakes in the game.

 

[pastronef]

Thank God ASO is so powerful. The least bad player and with the longest term stakes in the game.

ASO should smell the long term sand storm and take Marseillaise, Besseges, Provence, HautVar-Maritimes, Drome-Ardeche, VentouxChallenge, MercanTour etc, under their wings

 

[E_F_]

But what will Flanders Classics do?

 

[pastronef]

But what will Flanders Classics do?

for now the RCS deal is for sponsorship. surely it means they are close to One Cycling and the Saudis. let's see if some Saudi sponsor pops up on Flanders Classics podiums too

 

[Samamba]

But what will Flanders Classics do?

They are already on board. They always were as their CEO is a money hungry giant.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

ASO should smell the long term sand storm and take Marseillaise, Besseges, Provence, HautVar-Maritimes, Drome-Ardeche, VentouxChallenge, MercanTour etc, under their wings

Why would they want to own even more races that bring in a loss?

 

[pastronef]

Why would they want to own even more races that bring in a loss?

to try and flip it and not lose. to set a tight link with the regions and sponsors. ASO has the power to do it. they'd be satellite races for the TDF who will never join One Cycling. there need to be strong races (ASO is the only one that could back them) to go against One Cycling. Besseges or Ardeche alone will be left behind without ASO

 

[Berniece]

Godfather of cycling discussed it in his column

https://www.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20250321_97292806

Spoiler: Google Translate

This week I read on my colleagues at Wielerflits that the Saudi PIF – the Public Investment Fund – will become the main sponsor of the Giro. That is, to put it mildly, not a news that I am surprised by. It is an open secret that behind the scenes of cycling, hard work is being done on the project ‘One Cycling’, an initiative with Saudi money that should lead to a kind of Champions League of cycling.

Reforms are almost as old as cycling itself and quite a few projects that promised to thoroughly redesign the sport have never gotten past the embryonic phase. We are thinking of the World Series of Cycling, which started out promisingly with money from the Rothschild Group, but then fizzled out like a candle. Velon is more or less the same story: set up on a grand scale, but today not much more than an X account that posts images and data from the bike.

It must be said: One Cycling is far beyond the castle in the air phase. With SURJ Sports Investment, a subsidiary of the aforementioned PIF, there is a financial backer who is prepared to invest 300 million in the sport over a period of three years. The teams that commit themselves can expect an extra million per year in this way – under certain conditions. Believe me: there is not one who can refuse such an amount, unless it is UAE Team Emirates.

Compared to golf and football, the investment of the Saudis is a tip, but in cycling it is big enough to get all the parties involved around the table. The major organizers are at least prepared to listen. Even the UCI is part of the discussions. They saw all previous initiatives in Aigle as so-called ‘Break Away Leagues’, in which the teams, following the example of the Premier League in football, more or less withdraw from the omnipotence of the federation. I am told that the UCI is not really in favor of ‘One Cycling’ either, but the progress is that they have not yet spoken out publicly against it.

The starting point of ‘One Cycling’ is the same as that of all its predecessors: ‘All the best riders in all the best races.’ The intention is to arrive at a tight calendar of existing and new races. It should make cycling more logical and marketable for a large audience. Let us hope that with this project, cycling can regain a foothold in the United States. Too much of the world is currently a blind spot for racing.

If I am correctly informed – Jurgen Foré and Bessel Kok are following up ‘One Cycling’ for us – then the Tour and the Vuelta are not currently part of the discussions. RCS is committed to the Giro, Milan-Sanremo and Lombardy. In an ideal world, ASO will come on board with Paris-Roubaix, but that is not the case at the moment.

One Cycling has been running for three years now and a lot of progress has been made in the initial phase. But as always: the more parties come around the table, the slower the process. Meanwhile, it is the Echternach procession: three steps forward, two steps back.

I read that Soren Waerenskjold did not want to start in the Saudi Alula Tour this year for ‘ethical reasons’. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but that does not mean I have to agree with it. I am a supporter of the principle that money does not stink. The Saudis are in all sports, why should cycling turn away from it? If Soren Waerenskjold reads the newspaper every day, he will have to cancel many races from his program these days.

 

[Potomac]

. I am a supporter of the principle that money does not stink

That's the TLDR if you ask me

 

[pastronef]

La Super League de cyclisme en bonne voie mais sans Pogacar et van der Poel ?

Véritable serpent de mer dans le football, la Super League pourrait aussi voir le jour en cyclisme. Le monde du vélo pourrait basculer dès l'année prochaine.

www.dhnet.be

Jayco, UAE, and others do not want to join One-Cycling

 

[Berniece]

La Super League de cyclisme en bonne voie mais sans Pogacar et van der Poel ?

Véritable serpent de mer dans le football, la Super League pourrait aussi voir le jour en cyclisme. Le monde du vélo pourrait basculer dès l'année prochaine.

www.dhnet.be

Jayco, UAE, and others do not want to join One-Cycling

Belgian newspaper wrote that UAE hasn't decided yet. It obviously wouldn't fare well for the league that the two biggest cyclists of the past spring season wouldn't be part of it when it starts next year.

 

[Tim Cahill]

The Gulf country would guarantee participating teams one million euros per year (editor's note: €250,000 for women's teams).

 

[pastronef]

Belgian newspaper wrote that UAE hasn't decided yet. It obviously wouldn't fare well for the league that the two biggest cyclists of the past spring season wouldn't be part of it when it starts next year.

and ASO

 

[Berniece]

and ASO

Depends on how everything would evolve in 5-10 years. It's not like they would themselves start arranging races during TDF or Roubaix. If the league gets bigger, eventually ASO will come to the table anyway.

 

[pastronef]

Depends on how everything would evolve in 5-10 years. It's not like they would themselves start arranging races during TDF or Roubaix. If the league gets bigger, eventually ASO will come to the table anyway.

in the meanwhile I want ASO to gather under its wings:

Marseillaise, Besseges, Provence, Haut-Var, Drome-Ardeche, VentouxChallenge, MercanTour Classic, Ain, Dunkerque, Occitanie, Plouay, etc

and ASO-Unipublic to get Mallorca, Valenciana, Andalucia, GranCamino, Murcia, Almeria, Getxo, GpIndurain, Itzulia, Asturias, Burgos, etc

and act as a dam. ASO-Unpublic to protect these minor races against One-Cycling and their "4 new races abroad"

 

[Samamba]

Depends on how everything would evolve in 5-10 years. It's not like they would themselves start arranging races during TDF or Roubaix. If the league gets bigger, eventually ASO will come to the table anyway.

Why exactly? What's the benefit for ASO to actually come to the table? The teams behind OneCycling aren't skipping the Tour yk. They would join something they have less power over and get nothing in return they don't already have or can't have?

New HLN piece has barely new info, still don't really know what the point of this whole thing is, well unless it actually is to just rip off the existing cycling fanbase and get rich while doing it.
Also the whole Saudi's are pulling out in 2029 does not make sense it all. Why do this whole thing in the first place when you're just gonna pull out in a few years. What's the point. This isn't charity.

 

[Berniece]

Why exactly? What's the benefit for ASO to actually come to the table? The teams behind OneCycling aren't skipping the Tour yk.

Money. If the league actually takes of, and earns more money, they'll want to be a part of it.

 

[Samamba]

Money. If the league actually takes of, and earns more money, they'll want to be a part of it.

And why would it make more money than what ASO would already be able to get if they want to? Yk ASO has the Tour right, they have all the power. If they want to sell their race to the Saudi's for 1Billion they probably could (if we forget about the French government at least). If they want to put their race behind paywalls in every country bar France they already could... It doesn't make sense. It makes sense for every race to be "sold" in a package, but not for the one race that's bigger than all of them combined.

 

[Berniece]

And why would it make more money than what ASO would already be able to get if they want to? Yk ASO has the Tour right, they have all the power. If they want to sell their race to the Saudi's for 1Billion they probably could (if we forget about the French government at least). If they want to put their race behind paywalls in every country bar France they already could... It doesn't make sense. It makes sense for every race to be "sold" in a package, but not for the one race that's bigger than all of them combined.

I can’t look into the future, maybe they are able to market it better? There are enough David v. Goliath stories in the world.

 

[Unchained]

I can’t look into the future, maybe they are able to market it better? There are enough David v. Goliath stories in the world.

Just curious about realized revenues through increased tourist volume for races and TV revenue. I certainly don't know but as a person watching bike racing for a few years, availability both on network and social media streams I would guess that general bike racing viewership has increased many thousands of percent in last @10 years.
I still don't know the advertising prices for TV, on Spanish broadcasting it big bike shops, national tourism ads from Bulgaria, Turkey, Portugal and Croatia that I have seen, and bicycle resellers like buybike,ect advertise but I don't know how much money it generates. Previously only grand tours, Olympics and Paris Roubaix were widely available in US..It's sounds logical that TV is a big part of bike racing future..

 

[yaco]

La Super League de cyclisme en bonne voie mais sans Pogacar et van der Poel ?

Véritable serpent de mer dans le football, la Super League pourrait aussi voir le jour en cyclisme. Le monde du vélo pourrait basculer dès l'année prochaine.

www.dhnet.be

Jayco, UAE, and others do not want to join One-Cycling

Do you think Jayco will not join when their co-sponsor is from Saudi Arabia.