SPECIAL | How a World Tour stage-race could change cycling's outlook internationally

I personally can’t imagine what would it feel like if I was born in New Zealand, Brazil, or even in the United States. I cannot imagine, that I would not have a chance to watch any big cycling race event in person and only on the television. Not to get to have a chance to see my idols riding their bikes. Not everybody is lucky to have all these privileges. We do need to give a chance to more kids and people around the world, in general, to see some big cycling races live. That’s why I want to introduce you to an idea.

This article has been written by Lukáš Ronald Lukács.  

My idea is to create a World Tour week-long stage race, which would be held in a different country every year. Each year a different country, but a country with none or little access to any big cycling race. I had the following countries in my mind: New Zealand, Japan, India, South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Israel, Greece, Baltic countries altogether, Finland, Ireland, Iceland, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, or any United States state - although one's opinion of a big race can differ.

Generally let’s say in 2025 it could be held in some US country, in 2026 in Japan, 2027 in New Zealand, etc. But if these countries are not interested in some way, the race can be held also in countries, that don’t have the biggest cycling races like Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, or Slovenia.

Currently, when one of these countries wants to have a big cycling race, only the World Championships are an option with basically just a race around some small area and riding in laps. This race would be a classic World Tour week-long stage race, not just a one-day race. The best idea would be to have this new race in May, as was the case with the Tour of California in the past. And except the Giro d'Italia, there are not any other World Tour races held fully in May.

I believe the best would be if it was organized by ASO or RCS, as I think they are the best in the business for that. Personally, I expect this race, to be versatile. Sometimes the winner would be a GC rider, other times a classic rider, but this will mainly depend on the general landscape of the organizing country.

In my opinion, it would be great if the race was named after some big global sponsor i.e. Coca-Cola company to support the organizing countries with funding. The race could be named 'Coca-Cola Tour'. It could of course be any other sponsor, but Coca-Cola comes to mind as they are also one of the sponsors of Tour de France and they are selling their products worldwide as well as they own many products under the Coca-Cola branch.

Therefore they could sponsor every distinctive jersey, so the organizers would not have to worry about looking for other sponsors. As an example, the jersey for the GC winner could be sponsored by Coca-Cola*, then it could be Sprite for the points classification jersey, the mountains classification jersey could be sponsored by Fanta and the best young rider’s jersey could be by Coca-Cola Zero.

You can already see the concept of the four distinctive jerseys. And maybe it would be a good idea to have a fifth distinctive jersey for the most active rider, who will collect the most points through some checkpoints during the stages just to make the race more attractive for the breakaway riders from the small teams. The design of this jersey will change every year, inspired by the organizing country.

I personally think this race can be one of the most attractive races in the cycling calendar. The Monuments, the Grand Tours, and the tradition is really important to keep, but I feel, that we need some new fresh ideas in cycling. Something new to look forward to, something different to experience. We need to discover some new places, to climb new mountains. I think cycling would enjoy riding in some new countries and new places like they enjoy during the Olympics as well as at the World Championships.

Can you imagine Tadej Pogačar vs. Jonas Vingeggard in the Colombian mountains battling for the title? Or Wout van Aert vs. Mathieu van der Poel battling in the New Zealand countryside for the win? Or having some sprinters battle in the streets of New York? How great it could be. Now with the pandemic many doors have been shut, but we can’t lock the cycling world in Europe forever. Because that kid in New Zealand deserves the same chance to see his idols as the kid in Belgium. And my main purpose for this event is, that one day, some people will say, that because of this event, because of this chance of seeing the greatest cyclist on the planet riding in their country, they decided to become a pro cyclist.

I really believe, that one day, this idea will not only be a dream but will become a reality. I know, it needs a lot of effort and work to create this, but I already know, that it will be worth it. Because we need to remember, only because some of us are lucky enough to be born in some big cycling country it does not mean, that everybody had the same luck. I feel like we need to do everything to give these people at least a chance, to see, for at least once in their lifetime, the greatest cyclists in the world live, through their own eyes and feel the atmosphere and the joy some of us do, when we are there in person. But if this project is unrealistic and unachievable, this can be made then only for the US and maybe Canada. So every year the race will visit another US state or another part of Canada. So it can be finally a big stage race for North America.