David Lappartient surprised that the proposal of budget caps was rejected by teams: "It was the smaller teams"

The disparity between best and worst WorldTour teams couldn't be more alarming. It is no secret that UAE Team Emirates - XRG operate on double (or sometimes even triple) the budget of teams such as Intermarché - Wanty and then it doesn't come as a surprise that the latter has opted to merge with Lotto to build a "more competitive" new formation with increased backing. Still, their resources will be no match for UAE who can shop at the transfer market at will. The only possible solution seems to be the introduction of budget caps, but the proposal was turned down. In particular by team such as Intermarché - Wanty.

"The big teams have very large budgets, and as a result, where before a relatively small sum could be enough to achieve a decent result, today you're just a bystander," UCI president David Lappartient told Ouest-France. "We considered implementing a 'budget cap' for all the teams, and paradoxically, the teams didn't accept it. I was surprised that it was mostly the smaller teams that refused. I think they were wrong because it seems necessary to level the playing field."

"Why vote against it when a budget cap is proposed?" Lappartient questioned the odd decision.

The Frenchman then goes on to explain what bugged the teams. According to them, the proposed budget cap was not going to fix most of the current problems. "They say yes, but first the cycling model needs to change. With a budget cap, if you exceeded the limit, you had to pay a tax that went to other teams. There was a mitigating mechanism in place."

Lappartient compares the current overlords UAE Team Emirates - XRG to the Bernard Hinault and Greg LeMond's La Vie Claire which dominated in the mid-1980s. Next to the two winners of combined 8 Tour de Frances, also future Giro winner Andrew Hampsten, Kim Andersen, Jean-Francois Bernard and Steve Bauer formed one of the strongest teams of cycling's history.

"When you look back at cycling history, consider La Vie Claire. They finished 1st, 2nd, 4th, 7th, and 12th in the 1986 Tour de France. And the team's budget at the time, relative to the others, was probably even higher than UAE Team Emirates'. I'm not saying it was right. But there have always been teams with more resources than others. The goal is to regulate things a little. And I remain convinced that a budget cap is one of the elements to achieve that."

Asked if he thought cycling's sponsorship model was outdated, the Frenchman's response somewhat evaded the subject of organizing parties such as ASO making a lot more money from races than they probably should. Instead, he pointed out the positive aspects of nowaday super-sponsors:

"Can't we say that cycling was undervalued compared to its true worth, and that today, it's a sport that has taken on a global dimension? And, as a result, we have sponsors of a more global scale, with more international teams. Perhaps this is the price of success, with cycling enjoying very high viewership. The real winners are the riders, who are earning a much better living."