Richard Plugge looks to elevate cycling's exposure with ONE Cycling: "Our real competitors are the Champions League, golf, American football..."

Team Visma | Lease a Bike CEO Richard Plugge is looking to make cycling a more profitable sport. Whilst ONE Cycling, led by him, is currently on halt, the intention to bring cycling to the big screens and advertisers continues as a way to try and bring in more money into the teams and riders themselves.

“The purpose of ONE Cycling is to look ahead to where we want to be in ten years. In cycling, the battle outside the race continues between the teams and their management. We do not sufficiently realize that our opponents are not the other teams or organizers, but all other forms of entertainment," Plugge says in an interview with Wielerflits. "They are competing increasingly harder for the attention of TV viewers. Our real competitors are the Champions League, golf, American football, basketball in the US, Formula 1 and combat sports."

In the interview, Plugge goes in depth on some of the goals of the project, and how it can connect with the UCI and ASO's view of the current peloton. Normally, this change would see some races be part of a league which could be a focus for advertisers to be part of. "Now there are more than 180 competition days in the World Tour. In all these races there is a continuous inflow and outflow of riders, which makes it a lot more difficult to make them celebrities among the general public. Stars are crucial to be relevant as a major sport."

“With a better-defined calendar you can solve the growing problem of organizing competitions safely," he argues, believing also that having the main events of the sport under one umbrella could help making them more viable than ever, whilst maintaining the competitive attractiveness. "A unified circuit, which will then hopefully become a bigger brand, will help attract sponsors outside the teams. Like today Heineken in Formula 1 and the Champions League. Or Aramco in Formula 1."