Management of cyclist over the long term

[therhodeo]

I've wondered about this alot but how would riders careers be managed differently if cycling wasn't so short term minded in terms of sponsors and results?

I feel like Lefevre is able to manage his riders better because of his budget and not having a lack of options for wins but other teams don't have that luxury. For example on the younger end I feel like Sagan is over-raced a lot due to the teams lack of other options and on the older end Evans would be better served at his age focusing on hilly one days and one week races but because of BMC's lack of GT options he's pushed into a role he will likely only continue to get worse at.

 

[trevim]

The problem with Sagan is that he's over raced with crap races. If I was him I would refuse to ride things like Cali, Utah, Colorado and Alberta. From a career perspective what's the point of getting 100 stages in those races?

 

[therhodeo]

The problem with Sagan is that he's over raced with crap races. If I was him I would refuse to ride things like Cali, Utah, Colorado and Alberta. From a career perspective what's the point of getting 100 stages in those races?

But from a sponsor point of view they want exposure. That's the thing that frustrates me that the teams are so beholden to the sponsors and WT points that they seem to always be compromising.

 

[Roude Leiw]

But from a sponsor point of view they want exposure. That's the thing that frustrates me that the teams are so beholden to the sponsors and WT points that they seem to always be compromising.

Cycling suffers from 2 main things for the moment:
- lack of long term visibility regarding team funding, it seems to me that each year at least 3-4 WT teams scramble to survive as yet again a sponsor goes
- which leads to overracing certain sure bets in terms of wins in ****ty but important for sponsor races. A prime example here would be fdj participating with really prime teams at coupe de france races. Suppose because pmu sponsors them which is again part of fdj. You already named other examples