Cycling's Pulse Rate
by Chris Fontecchio on Jun 16, 2008 2:17 PM EDT
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PrintIs anyone else blown away by the news of the last week or so? To sum:
- Team High Road is now Team Columbia Sports, through 2010 at least
- Quick Step re-upped for another three years, extending Tom Boonen's contract even in the midst of his worst week ever
- CSC just secured its own immediate future with Saxo Bank
- And ASO keeps extending its reach around the globe (Spain, California...)
The first three are easy to understand: a lot of sponsorship deals for Pro Tour teams are expiring at the same time, and the teams are carrying on. Three new big sponsors (for the #1, 3 and 6 teams in the world) seems like big news. A more cautious reading is that the sport has successfully pulled back from the sponsorship abyss, a real possibility given the cyclical nature of the investments combined with the doping problems of the last few years. Is this the start of a massive new wave of investment into the sport? Eh, I don't think we're there yet. But Cycling will almost surely remain viable at the top level long enough for the anti-doping era to take hold. And once that happens (assuming it does), the sport should truly thrive again.
The fourth bullet represents a different kind of realignment: the consolidation of the races into a race-organizing superpower. Obviously, this is part of Le Tour's primary goal of crushing the UCI and permanently barring them from messing with ASO's crown jewel. ASO's continued rise is a serious blow to the UCI and its own mission of taking charge of the sport's organization, for both entertainment and doping enforcement purposes. That said, this realignment doesn't necessarily portend chaos.
For starters, ASO are not unjustified in wanting control of their race, including all its revenues, as a simple matter of property law. It would have been nice for the sport to take on the structure the UCI had in mind, but some kind of structure will eventually take hold. Doping control requires it, and nothing threatens the value of ASO's property more than doping. I'd guess that ASO wants a structure to exist, but in their eyes working with the UCI is like bringing your car to a mechanic who paints it a new color, makes the engine worse, and sends you a bill.
Anyway, perhaps ASO wants to partner with enough races to run its own circuit, along with its own rules and controls. Maybe this will work: ASO deserve a lot of credit for rescuing races like Paris-Nice and Paris-Roubaix from oblivion, along with running Le Tour pretty well. Setting aside their external flame wars, they're good at what they do. Now, having the races in charge is a little one-sided, lest we forget the days if Henri Desgrange (the first Tour manager who delighted in driving riders inhumanely), so at least one other structure along the lines of a teams or riders union will be needed to keep things balanced. Of course, ASO hasn't officially taken control of the sport yet, but we should know more about the status of things by the end of the month, when half of the 18 Pro Tour teams who don't yet have a Pro Tour license for 2009 are due to apply for their renewal ... or decide not to.
Who the hell knows? I guess all I can say is, if ASO is going to win their war with the UCI, let them get done with it ASAP and start working on repairing the future. The sport itself is just about ready.
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The UCI wants globalization
and ASO wants too.
Before ToC became a Pro Tour race, ASO took him. I look to China for the next outside-Euro’s investment of ASO…
You think?
China… Russia… I see these as potential dividing lines. One incentive for a team to side with ASO is so they don’t have to field a team in China or Russia in the middle of the season. US in February? Sure, no problem. Russia in May? Maybe… but it’d better be worth it. China any time from March to September? Ouch.
"If writing too much about the Classics is wrong, I don't want to be right."
by Chris Fontecchio on Jun 16, 2008 2:35 PM EDT up reply actions
I had similar thoughts
I read this in the Velonews article
The 2008 season has seen ASO align itself with Giro organizers RCS, buy a stake in the Vuelta España and express interest in the Tour of Germany. In recent weeks ASO has been circulating a proposal to restructure pro road cycling among event organizers; it appears to be an attempt to create its own top-flight European pro cycling calendar.
It seems to me that there are two motivating factors that will need to be dealt with separately. One is the need for a bit of cohesiveness at the top level of the sport. It makes it easier for us, the fans, to declare
“__ is the best cyclist in the world!”Or more likely,
“__ is not the best cyclist in the world because of x, y, and zBut still, having that objective measure to agree/disagree with is kind of nice.
The other motivating factor is in order to attract new and bigger sponsors…make cycling into the biggest, most widespread, biggest demographic appealing sport in the world. The UCI tried to hit both birds with one stone. Time will tell, but it seems that their aim is a little off.
It will be interesting to see, now that it seems that ASO has both ambitions as well, whether they will manage the task any better.
__ is the best
People have tried for decades to come up with such a system. Occasionally there’s a dominant enough guy for people to agree, but in the end you just can’t get certain types of riders into the same race as certain other types. So you’re left with subjectivity. Hey! That’s us!
In all seriousness, the CQ points ranking comes as close to a true measure as anything I can think of.
"If writing too much about the Classics is wrong, I don't want to be right."
by Chris Fontecchio on Jun 16, 2008 8:29 PM EDT up reply actions
clarify
You can’t get the contenders for best rider to race each other… regardless of what system you devise. The ASO plan, the UCI plan, they all fail because Alberto Contador just isn’t going to show up at the Tour of Flanders, or some such thing.
"If writing too much about the Classics is wrong, I don't want to be right."
by Chris Fontecchio on Jun 16, 2008 8:31 PM EDT up reply actions
i'm all about subjectivity
stats…. meh. cycling isn’t like baseball, played on the same diamond with the same bat and the same ball week after week, year after year. deciding who is the best rider, that’s always going to be a matter of opinion. more fun that way, anyway ;-)
Me
I just root for everyone. Except Oscar Pereiro.
"If writing too much about the Classics is wrong, I don't want to be right."
by Chris Fontecchio on Jun 17, 2008 12:31 AM EDT up reply actions
what i see
is more people in China (Asia) look for cycling, and is a market growing .Maybe he needs a star/s like americans had.
But yes, the time weather there isn’t so good.
by semprenaroda on Jun 16, 2008 2:51 PM EDT up reply actions
I think there used to be a Paris-Moscow race long ago
and it seems to still exist at least sporadically as a “peace race,” whatever that is. I can’t find the historical race online; I think I saw it in a historical bike mag. Anyway, it’s doable.
I myself
Don’t really care to see racing in Russia and definitely not in China. As far as ASO and AEG working together, the outcome remains to be seen. Obviously ASO wants a piece of the action from the Tour of California. The race this year was fantastic and all the Euro riders were lining up to race in the nice weather (which didn’t come this year) and many commented on how well the race was run. Even TB commented on the race organization and how some organizers in Belgium could learn a thing or two about how to run a proper race. If I were ASO I would want a piece of that action too. The only thing I ask is that ToC retains its American flavor just as I would want the Vuelta to retain its Spanish flavor. If done right, the partnership could benefit all of cycling. But yeah, I agree that a pro riders’ union needs to be created to keep everyone honest.
If I just had one more gear, I...
I get
the whole globalization thing: you can attract larger, institutional sponsors by saying “we’ll show your brand to over 3 billion people worldwide” than “Well, we can help you in Belgium, Italy, Spain and France.” That said, I cringe at the thought of dragging the top riders around the globe. Their lives sound exhausting enough as is.
"If writing too much about the Classics is wrong, I don't want to be right."
by Chris Fontecchio on Jun 16, 2008 3:12 PM EDT up reply actions
I wonder
if there’s any path to fewer races for the top tier in an expanding sport. That might help in the globalization of it.
(And I can imagine few cooler stages than one winding around Hong Kong Island and finishing up on Victoria Peak.)
That climb
would hurt.
"If writing too much about the Classics is wrong, I don't want to be right."
by Chris Fontecchio on Jun 17, 2008 12:30 AM EDT up reply actions
The Asian market is growing, but it is still a long way off.
It will be 10 years, or more until there is a justifiable reason to do what the UCI is foolishly pushing on.
Asia is jut not ready for it.
Shipping racers all over the world is brutal and costly.
There is no logical reason or it.
I have read things about the great potential of investment from these growing lands.
Well, all I can say to that is here in Taiwan there is a lot of Yankee fans because Chien-Ming Wang pitches for them.
Baseball is huge over here right now, and that wasn’t done because a new team was added to the AL, or NL leagues.
How did that happen?
Through decades of grassroots buildup of the sport of baseball here in Taiwan.
Right now, in Taiwan both Giant and Merida Bicycles are spending a huge amount of money on a series of one day Road and MTB races. Both companies are pushing at many levels to create cycling as a lifestyle, as a sport, as a thing to do.
In Asia there already is the –
Tour of Langkawi
Tour of China
Tour of Taiwan
Tour of Japan
ect . . .
What all these events really need is help in logistics and oversight.
Isn’t that the main purpose of the UCI?
I think if the UCI would do more at growing these races, step by step, things would become really big over here.
But that takes years of work, and not just a single PT event that pops up on the calendar which the top teams are forced to show up to.
It doesn’t work like that.
Never has, never will.
Skeptic!
Here’s my hypothetical, building on Sui Juris’ idea: a one-day race finishing on the Peak in Hong Kong, in September. You have to pay out like Qatar was, appearance fees and all, so you get some big names. HK is a worldly city, to say the least, and Asian markets typically respond to getting big-name stuff from the west. So you get Quick Step, some Italians, maybe Astana… definitely someone from the Tour. I bet you’d get a big crowd, and these teams would say to their sponsors that they flashed the brand in front of a large, previously untapped audience.
I’m not saying it would definitely work, but at the same time there’s an alternative to the grass-roots movement.
"If writing too much about the Classics is wrong, I don't want to be right."
by Chris Fontecchio on Jun 17, 2008 1:21 PM EDT up reply actions
Compare it
with the various attempts to make soccer popular in the states. Every twenty years or so a bunch of millionaires with more money than sense think that they are going to strike it rich by bringing a bunch of over the hill superstars to launch a glitzy, flashy league. And every twenty years they lose the lot. While the kids and womens game continues to grow at a quite astonishing rate even with no real hope for anyone of turning pro.
Cycling should be huge in China, but they need home grown stars to produce anything that is going to last. Otherwise you risk producing Tour of Qatar type races where all the big names from Europe fly in, race through an empty desert, take the money and run, while back home the fans twiddle their thumbs and wonder when the season proper is going ot start.
big difference
That soccer project’s success relies heavily upon sustained interest and ticket sales. A once a year race is entirely sponsor driven. Further, you’re not going to have the empty desert problems in Hong Kong. I promise :)
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