Tadej Pogacar and Mauro Giannetti

[Red Rick]

I think @Red Rick had a theory? Something like cycling was better value for money relative to other options UAE had.

For example, Emirates sponsor Real Madrid, AC Milan, Arsenal FC, Olympique Lyonnais, FC Bayern Munich. I think that would dwarf UAE's investment in cycling (between €60 million and €65 million for 2025).

But the risk is another Walsh comes along, does some simple investigative journalism and lifts the lid. UAE can adsorb that blow back. Not sure about the UCI though. But even those who run the UCI are not bigger than the sport itself - they can all be replaced if there was a scandal uncovered. Like the President of FIFA was.

I think sportswashing is quite often very diversified, and there's not really an intent way in advance to go "yeah let's just crush cycling now". Cycling just happens to be cheaper than some other big ticket sports and still have one of the greatest sports events.

Then Pogacar is probably mostly Gianetti's creation, and UAE influence probably slowly starts ramping up after that 2020 Tour.

 

[TheKidsCallMeBoss]

They finance a team (which became the best in the world). They organize a WT stage race. They bought Colnago. MyWhoosh, headquartered in Abu Dhabi (Gianetti is a member of the board), organizes the UCI Esports World Championships (held in Abu Dhabi). They spend a lot of money in cycling (from their point of vue it might not really be a lot). Yet they still have no riders and no fans (you just need to have a look at the UAE Tour to see that there are more camels than people along the course).

Don't ask me why they're interested. Maybe some lunatic convinced them that cycling was an big thing, or they're run by a real cycling fan, or it's part of a larger “sportwashing” mission, or they just don't know what to do with their money. The fact is that for the past ten years, they've been really interested in it.


I find this way of reducing the Clinic to a battle between fanboys (the same that one can read till indigestion throughout the rest of the forum) quite insulting. In any case, I don't recognize myself in this kind of thing at all. And most of the time, I read less blind fanboyism in this part of the forum than elsewhere.

Have you ever did any kind of sport in your life? The process of a country producing a world-class athlete all of a sudden is not something that happens.

The UAE has been sponsoring cycling since 2017, and they have been winning major races since 2020. If a little Arab kid aged 5-7 thought this sport was cool, then it will take another decade or so for that to translate into results on the international stage. I checked the PSC website and found that there was no UAE junior national championship until 2022, but there is one now. I also saw that the champion came fourth in the 2025 Asian Championship. Of course, he will probably never be the best at world level, but that's what they call progress. The next generation may be even more talented than him...

It's ridiculous that people on a cycling forum are angry just because a country is encouraging its residents to take part in this sport.

By the way, the UAE is a rich country, not a poor joke like we are here in the EU. They invest in a variety of sectors of the economy, creating opportunities and jobs for local people. The money they invest in cycling is literally like a drop in the ocean. It's completely irrelevant to them, but folks act like they're trying to take over the world with it.

 

[Extinction]

Bottom line is this is the sport of cycling. You are not going to find any top pro who is squeaky clean. None. So sadly most of what gets discussed in the Clinic boils down to my doper is being beaten and I'm not happy.

This is disingenuous, sorry. I would have sort of agreed with you in the pre-epo days, but no longer. Especially with the ever widening gap between the super funded teams, of which UAE is at the top, and the rest of the outfits struggling for the scraps to varying degrees.

The situation has only aggravated the cycling at "two speeds" phenomenon, which began in the 90s. I don't care if my doper gets beaten by someone else's. No, what annoys me is, number one having a Gianetti directing the top team of the sport and, secondly, the fact that you give him 60 million euros from Middle East oil and you get a Pogacar. Now I don't doubt Pog has talent, but I also am quite sure he would not be destroying the field with 100 km solos, were it not for him riding for Gianetti with a 60 million budget to work with.

Each is free to find what is attrattive and entertaining as they please. But for me this is not it.