Marc Madiot defends budget cap in cycling: "If we don’t cap the budgets, we will remain in a situation where the giant teams can control everything"
CyclingFriday, 14 April 2023 at 17:20
A budget cap in cycling is already being discussed for many years and one of the hardest defenders of it is Groupama-FDJ's manager Marc Madiot. As two teams in specific take control of a big portion of the races this season, Madiot brings the topic back up.
“Look at the budgets and look at the classification. They can have six or seven leaders on each race. We can’t do that. If we don’t cap the budgets, we will remain in a situation where the giant teams can control everything. But it’s very difficult to change things," Marc Madiot told Dernière Heure. It is not the first time the veteran talks of a possible limit on the amount of budget teams can have to sign riders, as the trend grows further over past years.
INEOS Grenadiers has reportedly a budget of around €50 million for several seasons, whilst UAE Team Emirates draws very near. UAE and Jumbo-Visma particularly have been quite dominant this season, winning most cobbled classics and World Tour stage-races so far this year. With the likes of Tadej Pogacar on one side, Jonas Vingegaard/Primoz Roglic/Wout van Aert in the other (supported by immensely strong teams with plenty depth) the results have been quite telling.
At the end of March, a UCI points update on the season revealed both teams with over 7100 points, whilst third team in the ranking Soudal - Quick-Step had only around 4600 points. The gap is enormous, mostly as both teams manage to have separate blocks with proven winners that cover most of the races in the calendar. Most of the teams in the World Tour however continue with more modest squads which include a few leaders with selective goals. Groupama features David Gaudu and Stefan Küng to that example, both of which have performed strongly throughout the spring.
“These teams can choose the day, the time and the place where they blow things apart, and they do that. In Groupama-FDJ; we are up there in the stage races and in the Classics. But we haven’t won and we won’t win," he adds, frustrated with the situation. "To have the right to be on the podium of a WorldTour race. I can tell you we’re giving 100 percent of ourselves down to every last detail. When you negotiate with a rider you have to spend a lot more money than our competitors to offer him an equivalent income. I am at a point where I count every Euro.”
Vincent Lavenu, manager of AG2R Citroën Team, agreed with the idea: “Obviously, money brings a certain power, but we see that armadas like Bora or Bahrain do not play in the same court as the others. You have to know how to use a budget, and even our team, which is rather well off, does not meet expectations for the moment."
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santiagobenites18-05-2025 - Win or lose Egan Bernal is a class act.Cyclingsbestfan18-05-2025
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KerisVroom18-05-2025
Quit your whining, Marc!
There's something approaching a free market in cycling, where teams can spend whatever they like. That's good and it leads to more investment in cycling. It also leads to top performers - not exactly spenders - getting the most out of the sport.
If Marc really wanted it, he could find more sponsors who had more to spend. Or, he could use what he has better than the others.
Isn't the best part of winning races knowing how much you had to overcome? I think the best cycling stories are those in which the little guy on the little team beats the big guy on the big team by being stronger or smarter! Don't take that away from us!
The biggest imbalance between teams right now isn't money, it is the presence of a small group of riders that are simply better than everyone else: Pogacar, MVDP, Wout, Primoz, Evenepoel, and arguably Vingegaard. At their best, no one other than other members of this group can beat any of them. We have heard it from one old-timer after another: against these riders, tactics are irrelevant. Breakaways, attacks to isolate, etc. don't help the mid-field teams because each of those riders can simply overpower an entire peloton. If money were the answer, Ineos would win more races than anyone, and Quickstep would get wins from someone other than Evenepoel.
It is also worth pointing out TJV, arguably the best team in the world right now, has neither the biggest budget nor the highest paid riders. Laporte just turned down more money to renew with them, and Wout, Primoz, and Jonas are all paid less than many other riders. But TJV has created a culture that attracts and retains top talent even without top payroll. Astana and the others have to do better.