Romain Bardet proposes radical change to improve pro cycling: "A draft system with a salary cap"

With 2025 marking the start of Romain Bardet's final season as a pro bike rider, the 34-year-old Frenchman has more than a decade's worth of experiences to reflect on from his career. Much has changed since Bardet's first World Tour season back in 2012, but the Team Picnic PostNL has now come up with the idea of a radical change to improve.

For starters, Bardet sees the desperate need to improve competitiveness within the sport. "If we project ourselves 3 years from now, on the biggest races in the world and the Tour de France, we know which teams are going to win them," explains the four-time Tour de France stage winner in conversation with L'Equipe. But how to fix this issue? "We could introduce a slightly less archaic system for recruiting young talent, a draft system with a salary cap, and perhaps by reducing the size of the teams in the biggest races. This would allow more teams to be invited and the races would be more difficult to control and lock down, and sporting interest would grow."

Bardet isn't the first notable name to raise the topic of a salary cap within cycling. As of yet though, the idea is yet to gain any real traction within the circles that matter. In an attempt to prove his point and show the need of a salary cap, Bardet compares his sport's rules with those of Rugby Union in France's Top 14.

"In Top 14, it is still complicated for the promoted teams but once you reach an average budget, access to the final stages can be achieved," he argues. "Castres was champion of France (in 2018)... We don't have the impression that the gap (between the teams) is as big as we are in cycling, where sponsors have unlimited means and can even buy out contracts."