![]() ![]() Given this shorter licensing period, and the expansion of the calendar, some teams will undoubtedly choose to be absent from those events they deem to have little effect on their sponsor’s exposure. The three-year WorldTour team license request, unceremoniously hacked down to two years in the ASO/UCI reforms dispute earlier this year, chipped away at the collective power of the teams to help determine the sport’s playing field. Sponsors are well aware that without a starting spot in Le Tour, their pro cycling marketing dollars sometimes might not amount to much more than charity. ![]() The crown jewel for all sponsors is still a starting spot in the Tour de France, but for every one of the current 18 teams which already have a guaranteed slot afforded by their WorldTour license, there is at least one more, fighting tooth and nail to get there – i.e., the 24 Pro Continental teams nominally eligible for a Grand Tour invitation. In short, the costs of running a team just went up – without a vote and without much discussion or warning.įewer big sponsors will be willing to undertake the general risks inherent in the sport if it gets more expensive, or else they will demand higher and/or more predictable returns on their investment. Worse yet, and reflective of the general sponsorship challenges which we have previously discussed, several teams are coming to the end of sponsorship agreements, and may have a tougher time replacing or extending those sponsors. In some cases, they may be asking for money which is simply not available. The result is that most teams, which may have already planned out and solidified 20 budgets with their sponsors, will have to revise their plans and go back to the well to ask for additional funds. Recent WorldTour changes include the calendar’s expansion by a phenomenal ten additional races (in all corners of the globe), and the establishment of minimum team participation expectations across the board. Instead, it is a counterpunch against the future WorldTour calendar expectations, and the seeming trend towards one-sided UCI decision-making. But the teams have a legitimate gripe here, and their suggested revolt is reflective of more than just the format of the World Championships. It would be one thing if it were just team owners and administrators having a disagreement in private. This casual response by the UCI smacked of a parent scolding a child. The UCI responded to the AIGCP press release on August 11 th by essentially calling the teams’ bluff, and simply asserting that all of the WorldTour teams should be in attendance. But the popularity of professional TTT stages in the Grand Tours remained, and hence the UCI decided to bring the event back in 2012, as a trade team challenge – adding an exciting spectacle to the World Championships and creating a competition the fans could rally behind. Unfortunately, the popular team event faded away at that time, because without an Olympic sanction there was no need for national cycling programs to put any investment into the event. After that, the TTT was replaced by individual time trials. A national team TTT was part of the World Championships format for men, women, and juniors until 1994 – just ahead of when professional cyclists first entered the Olympic fray in Atlanta, in 1996. It wasn’t always this way long-time fans of cycling may recall that the TTT used to be one of the pinnacles of elite amateur cycling. ![]() But even though national teams do not compete, the TTT has become one of the showcase races of the UCI’s annual flagship event. Whereas national teams receive support from their home federations to transport their riders, equipment, and entourages to compete in the World Championship road events, the TTT event is comprised of the top commercial or “trade” teams – not national teams. The key contention pointed out in the AugAIGCP press release announcing the boycott is that the teams will themselves have to continue to shoulder the costs of participating in what is ostensibly a UCI World Championship event. This potential walkout highlights the teams’ growing discontent with the UCI – specifically the expansion of the WorldTour calendar in future years – and the frustration of not having enough input in how they run their own businesses. Generally fed up with the pace of reforms and with the economic pressures they face in trying to field teams for all of the WorldTour’s far-flung races, the teams voted to boycott the upcoming UCI World Team Time Trial (TTT) Championship in Doha. Cycling’s association of teams, the Association International des Groupes Cyclistes Professionels (AIGCP), recently issued a strong rebuke to the sport’s ruling body – the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI). ![]()
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