🤝 Cycling's proposed new league is supported by EF Education-EasyPost, and their general manager @Vaughters is calling on other teams to put aside their disagreements and support the plan. 👇 Apple: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/rad… Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/38QAVB…
Jonathan Vaughters defends the new cycling 'Super League' project: "This is a necessary step for cycling"
CyclingSunday, 29 October 2023 at 01:00
This week reports uncloaked a behind-the-scenes push to overhaul the business model of professional cycling. Led by Jumbo-Visma CEO Richard Plugge and Soudal-QuickStep's wealthy backer Zdenek Bakala, the scheme is designed to bring large amounts of venture capital into the sport to help shore up what are increasingly dire economics.
The details of the plan are still unclear, but Plugge and EF Education-EasyPost CEO Jonathan Vaughters spoke to the 'Radio Cycling' podcast revealing some new information.
"I can speak for teams and I can speak for a lot of the events on the calendar that are really struggling to make ends meet. Cycling has always subsisted off of this sponsorship revenue model, and that applies to teams, but it also applies to smaller races where you have to find sponsorship revenue in order to produce the event."
"This isn't about anyone becoming rich out of this equation. This is about stabilising the economics so that we do not run into situations like Jumbo-Visma almost going bankrupt at the end of the season," Vaughters adding that HTC-Highroad were in the same situation in 2011 and ultimately disbanded.
"This is a necessary step for cycling and so any sort of personal conflicts that people might have with Richard, I would hope they would be able to put them aside in order to make this step forward and start building something collective that betters the entire sport."
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- Wout still recovering from injuries? Might be more of a factor than any attempted middle finger to the UCI?mobk15-11-2024
- We ll talk about all of this in 10 years - but for now lets stop the bullshitChrisBe14-11-2024
- This may very well be is the least germaine comment I've ever read online.verve82514-11-2024
- Yes! Clear up these gray areas before lives are lost or damaged!velodan14-11-2024
- Surely the question should be what else are they using as they smash climbing records? Records that have stood since the EPO era.DJ14-11-2024
- Why? He is past his "sell by "date. Just like Froome.
ScottG14-11-2024 - Without Wout or mvdp cyclocross is a sleeperScottG14-11-2024
- Tom has a bit of an overblown image of himself. Contrast him to Pog- night and day.ScottG14-11-2024
- The other commenters are exactly right - different eras. It does help that bikes now have lower gears without sacrificing higher ones. Merckx rode up mountain passes with a 5 speed cluster- and I doubt he had anything less than a 42x24. See how exhausted you'd be going up Mont Ventoux with that, lol.ScottG14-11-2024
- Times have changed, Bart Wellens, and it's only natural and makes total sense that riders like Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel's primary focus is on their road careers. It has absolutely nothing to do with doing a 'disservice' to the UCI.
santiagobenites14-11-2024