Cycling Broadcasting, Pog’s Legend, New Women’s Rivalries, One Cycling, Lappartient’s Future, Trump Looks to World Cup and Olympics…
In this week’s AIRmail newsletter, The Outer Line takes an in-depth look at trending cycling news: Better ideas for cycling broadcasting, Pog’s legend grows, new women’s rivalries, is One Cycling “imminent?” Lappartient’s future, Trump Looks to World Cup and Olympics…
# Catch up on pro cycling – and its context within the broader world of sports – with AIRmail … Analysis, Insight and Reflections from The Outer Line. You can subscribe to AIRmail here, and check out The Outer Line’s extensive library of articles on the governance and economics of cycling here. #
Key Takeaways:
- How Current Broadcasting Trends Can Help Cycling
- Pogačar’s Legend Continues to Grow
- One Cycling Seems Anything but Imminent
- Will Lappartient Stick It Out With the UCI?
- Trump Looks to the Olympics and World Cup
Cycling on TV too long?
We’ve recently devoted a lot of analysis to sports broadcasting and licensing: the market, technologies for delivery, and strategies to reach fans and activate revenue streams are rapidly evolving – and may be leaving cycling at a disadvantage. But rather than overfocus on the billion dollar opportunities that pro cycling hasn’t capitalized on, we turn our focus to a critical part of the fan engagement puzzle that the sport can quickly solve: human interest storytelling. Current cycling programming is delivered in long-form, and often boring multi-hour live blocks, whereas much of today’s sports content – outside of certain arena sports like soccer matches and the NFL – is mostly consumed in 7-10 minute edited blocks available on-demand through mobile devices. A different way of thinking about the fan engagement riddle, and pro cycling’s need to entice new and younger fans into watching the sport, is to coordinate and deliver more human interest content such as interviews and biographic shorts. This is the type of content that transcends racing, to get ordinary people – regular sports fans who aren’t necessarily connected with cycling – to connect with the personalities, build an affinity and start to watch the sport. Men’s cycling is currently dominated by just a handful of riders (see below) – with their teams controlling their digital presence – but there is a broad palette of up-and-coming young stars who could represent more interesting broadcast content for the sports licensing partners. Women’s pro cycling is beginning to work this angle, and given the pattern of individual athletes – not teams – driving up interest for women’s sports marketing and engagement, the WWT should be doing even more in this arena to showcase its athlete ambassadors and broaden its fan base. The rivalries and the broader interest that this type of model might create enliven the narrative and hook new fans. Its potential should not be underestimated.
Pogačar solo
Tadej Pogačar’s performance on Saturday at Strade Bianche put to rest any questions whether the 2025 season would be more competitive or uncertain than 2024 – if there was still any doubt (hope?). While Tom Pidcock was strong enough to match Pogačar on the Monte Sante Marie and prevent a second ultra-long-range solo exhibition, not even his world-class bike handling skills, nor Pogačar overcooking a corner, could stop the current World Champion. After that spectacular mid-race crash that would have sent most of us to the hospital or the cemetery, Pog bounced up, caught Pidcock and then rode clear of him with just under 20 kilometers to go to grab his third career Strade Bianche win. While the start-list was not as star-studded as the later spring monuments may be, Pidcock is still a very worthy foe. Nonetheless, Pogačar dispatched him with apparent ease, despite being bloodied and covered in road rash. While Pogačar was able to walk away unscathed, the mistake proved he has some fallibility and offered his competition their only glimmer of hope on difficult courses in the near future.
Another win for the legend
Outside of assuring us that the 26-year-old Slovenian will continue his march toward a Merckxian career, his ride reinforced the prevailing trend among the sport’s top riders – solo finishes. This is far from the first time that Pogačar has taken matters into his own hands: having his dominant UAE team set an early and unsustainable pace, then launching an unmatchable long-range attack to ride clear for the win. After relying on his fast finish for major wins through the first three years of his career, Pogačar has now soloed to ten WorldTour-level and World Championship-level one-day victories in just the last 36 months. Expanding our view beyond Pogačar, if we bundle the previous two editions of Strade Bianche with the last two years of the Monuments, World Championships, and Olympics, solo winners have won on 14 of the 15 occasions, comprised of just three riders (Remco Evenepoel, Mathieu van der Poel and Pogačar). This extreme pooling of top wins illustrates just how much professional cycling is lacking parity and tactical ingenuity at the current moment.
Vollering was the strongest in Siena
The Strade Bianche women’s race suggested that the Women’s WorldTour is developing a new high-octane rivalry to go along with its already-crowded elite level. Demi Vollering, riding for her new FDJ-Suez team, won ahead of SD-Worx-Protime’s Anna van der Breggen, who appears to be slowly but surely building back to the form that saw her win nearly every major race on the calendar before retiring in 2021. The fact that she was Vollering’s director sportif last season at SD-Worx, and that Vollering had an acrimonious split with the team, suggests we should expect a rivalry with plenty of drama – probably both on and off the parcours. This is the kind of generational-defining rivalry that sports can usually only hope to deliver for fans, and it is happening right now in the Women’s WorldTour.
A new rivalry
Roughly a month has passed since the latest news stories hyping the elusive One Cycling, and although we are generally supportive of its key initiatives, there seems to be nothing “imminent” about it. However, there are some important takeaways from what we do know at this time and the potential for its principals like Visma-LAB’s Richard Plugge to pivot pro cycling towards team- and “league”-oriented reforms. First, our partners at Wielerflits have stayed on the topic and examined some of the deeper implications and complications, not the least of which is ASO’s unwillingness to participate in any sports business model in which it is not the primary player. (The list of previous failed efforts in this regard is almost too long to list.) It seems likely that the French giant will stay its course – and may even try to actively disrupt One Cycling’s proposed initiatives to sway attention and revenue away from its valuable Tour de France property. However, the rumored backers of One Cycling may have one more limited path to success via a combination of soft power and fortuitous opportunity; as reported on Sunday, a subsidiary arm of the Saudi Public Investment Fund may be in the running to take over as the Giro d’Italia’s lead sponsor when Enel withdraws its support. With a grand tour (and several other WT events) potentially under its influence, and the potential to restructure much of the sport’s calendar around a new capitalization and marketing model, there is at least some chance that One Cycling might be able to maneuver ASO into more of a bargaining posture. ASO could find that propping up its French-centric calendar could become harder to sustain against a foe with much deeper pockets. Yet, serious questions remain as to whether One Cycling can launch without the Tour de France (and the Vuelta) included its super-league championship narrative.
Saudi investment
Actual Saudi investment in sport, amid the PIF’s rumored interests in pro cycling, bears closer examination in this latest round of One Cycling news. Two recent developments with SURJ Investments – the arm of the PIF reportedly linked to One Cycling and the Giro – could tamp down any imminent investment in pro cycling. It is reportedly investing over $600 million USD in a new licensing rights venture with World Athletics to supercharge its global event marketing and production. And almost simultaneously, the same body committed to a joint venture – reportedly also north of $600M – with TKO Group Holdings (parent of the UFC and World Wrestling Entertainment) to re-invent boxing with a new unified championship model. Saudi sports investments and acquisitions have thus far focused on universally-recognized sports teams and events to maximize fan affinity and goodwill. The wide demographic appeal of these sports has helped rehabilitate Saudi Arabia’s global image despite the country’s controversial human rights record – a prime example of sportswashing. The combination of athletics and combat sports touch a broad spectrum of demographic engagement and revenue stream, and could also promote tourism for major events actually held in Saudi stadiums. A reasonable question in this regard is whether cycling – with its smaller audiences and narrower demographic appeal – can really help that much to achieve the “rebranding” that the Saudis are after. That decision point, combined with oversaturation in the sports marketplace more generally, could, in the end, make or break the One Cycling project.
David Lappartient to the IOC
There seems to be an assumption around cycling that UCI David Lappartient is on his way out – since he became a member of the International Olympic Committee, and is currently running for its presidency. However, few knowledgeable observers give him any chance of winning that powerful job, with Sebastian Coe, Juan Antonio Samaranch. Jr, and Kirsty Coventry being the heavy favorites at this late stage in the game (the election occurs next week). Many observers, including ourselves, have been critical of Lappartient for trying to hold down some eleven different jobs – including a coordinating role at the recent Paris Olympics – at the expense of paying attention to cycling’s manifold challenges. But few have asked the question of what he might do if he loses his IOC presidency bid. Considering that he could lose his prestigious seat on the IOC if he was no longer head of the UCI, it seems likely that he will run for a third term, when the UCI meets during the world championships in Rwanda. So it seems reasonable to ask the question: what would be Lappartient’s focus for cycling if he runs for a third UCI term, and more specifically, what are his plans for the Worlds if the military and humanitarian crisis on Rwanda’s border continues to escalate. (Watch for our upcoming Special Issue on this topic.)
Trouble in Rwanda
Observers are beginning to wonder if and how President Donald Trump’s sweeping foreign policy changes might affect the two biggest sporting events in the world – the Olympics and the World Cup – both of which take place on U.S. soil during the next four years. Last week, outgoing IOC President Thomas Bach said in a rare interview that he was comfortable with the administration’s support. However, there are already points of potential concern; while the Los Angeles Olympics are not dependent upon Federal funding, various government agencies disrupted by Federal reorganization will be required to provide security, transportation, housing and logistics. In addition, while the new administration has banned transgender athletes and threatened visa denials based on gender interpretation, the IOC does currently allow transgender athletes in women’s sports. A hot take on these incendiary issues has already been making waves in Europe already (and more are likely to come). The 2026 World Cup will consist of 104 games across 16 different locations in the U.S., Mexico and Canada, and Trump and FIFA boss Gianni Infantino just announced a new task force to prepare for the tournament. Infantino described each match as being “bigger than the Super Bowl” and claimed that the overall event would bring $40 billion of investment and over 200,000 jobs to the U.S. As to whether current trade and political strains between the U.S. and Mexico and Canada could have an impact, Trump suggested that the tension would make the tournament “more exciting.”
Evenepoel at the soccer World Cup?
# Catch up on pro cycling – and its context within the broader world of sports – with AIRmail … Analysis, Insight and Reflections from The Outer Line. You can subscribe to AIRmail here, and check out The Outer Line’s extensive library of articles on the governance and economics of cycling here. #
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