"We’re just as expensive as F1, but without any revenue": Vaughters worried by cycling's out-dated financial model
Cycling
How long can cycling carry on with the way it's financial model works at the moment? That's a question many sponsors ask themselves before they politely refuse a team's inquiry regarding a future partnership. No wonder the Pro-division has shrunk from 27 teams in 2018 to 16 in 2026. But for the average WorldTour team, it's just as much a battle for survival year in, year out. And UCI? Doesn't seem to be bothered by the turn of events.
"The teams are operating on these flimsy three-year licenses that are actually reviewed every year," EF Education-EasyPost owner Jonathan Vaughters says on the Domestique Hotseat podcast. "So it’s effectively a one-year license really."
"Certainly the biggest cost increase in cycling is the riders' salaries and then all the peripheral, you know, sports science and whatnot that support that goes around that. A team like UAE goes 'we will spend as much as we need to spend to win everything'. Well, that’s just going to bleed out into the rest of the marketplace. That’s going to inflate everything."
And other teams seem to have decided to fight fire with even more fire. "Red Bull has the same philosophy right now 'we’ll just spend until we get there,'" he says. The knock-on effect is predictable and punishing for everyone else. "It raises the cost of sponsoring a winning team, you know, a team that can win big things."
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As expensive as F1 or soccer
The sums of money involved in the transfers within the upper league right now are quite worrying Vaughters. His team EF Education-EasyPost never belonged to the richest formations in the peloton. Now, the gap is growing even further and Vaughters has to worry that one day, his riders' agents will simply inform him that a contract has been voided for a sum of money.
But what really gets Vaughters going in the morning is the severely out-dated financial system of cycling. Right now, the entire model runs on a whim, a decision of a sponsor or two to come together and support a certain team's project. Then they invest money they are unlikely to ever see return. That's because race organizers such as ASO monopolize all the profit for themselves.
"We’re just as expensive as F1. We’re just as expensive as European football, or a lot of American sports," Vaughters says. In those sports, he argues, sponsorship is not asked to carry the whole structure. "Those sports are operating on a principle that the core revenue is the media rights revenue. And then additionally merchandising and ticket sales. Sponsorship is just a frosting on the cake, right?"
Cycling is a sinking ship
Cycling, by contrast, is trying to float without a hull. "We’re trying to float the entire ship on just sponsorship because these other sources of revenue don’t exist," he says. "We don’t have collective merchandising. The teams do not receive anything from media rights."
If that sounds like something that should be fixable, Vaughters does not share the optimism. "That’s tricky because ASO owns essentially all the media rights, or at least the valuable ones," he says. And this stand-off between teams and the likes of ASO lasts for three decades now.
The 2025 Tour de France jersey winners: Jonathan Milan (green), Tadej Pogacar (yellow & polka dot) and Florian Lipowitz (white)
How to get out of this vicious circle?
Vaughters proposes a solution or two to make cycling more sustainable. The first is creating images for teams that people will be able to relate to. Right now, some teams can change 5+ title sponsors within five season, destroying any sort of identity:
"Create permanent franchises so that people will invest as opposed to donate and keep the cost a little bit more under control so that cycling is an attractive place that generates value for a sponsor."
And then a way to restrict the virtually unlimited financial options of some sponsors, creating an even playing field. "We can call it all kinds of things; salary caps or budget caps,"
he says.
One such effort was already in motion since 2023 - the One Cycling project. However its proposal was thrown out of the window by UCI. Vaughters has his own opinion about that: "The UCI actually pushes against the commercial interests of the teams."
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Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
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- The UCI do have their favorites.
Front24208-11-2026 - On a positive note, you maybe notice turning this topic into a discussion has the benefit of eliminating certain participants who do not see how they can turn it back to their sole interest ;-)Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- People see what they want to. I am actually the opposite of your accusation, probably more of a rebel than most of you who don’t get the big picture. The difference is, I don’t go moaning publicly about the consequences of my transgressions, I understand the need for rules and I take my OWN responsibility when deciding to ignore or break them or doing so involuntarily. I will also not hesitate to state my case or argue vehemently when relevant, sometimes it works, sometimes it makes things worse but that’s the price to pay for principles and having character.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- That may be but that was unknown to others and nothing says that’s the whole truth. Again, don’t try to misinterpret, it is a call and technically it is correct. Besides, even if there is a valid reason, that does not disqualify the ruling or punishment as far as the rules have been developed. I don’t think they’re as far as in football where for handball there is a distinction (in some ways and specific cases) between intentional or not. And football can be just as harsh and people live with it, eg the offside rule, also judged to within tiny fractions but often wrong or ignored. It’s the nature of every collective organisation and sometimes I wonder if our rebellion against it isn’t seated in the feelings we carry from the injustices we’ve felt personally, like being flashed driving 1km/h too fast when we are explained limits are just a security measure but we are absolutely certain not to have endangered anyone with our transgression. The problem is, nobody has better solutions and no 2 people have the same interpretation of where a limit should be.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- Because for you deviated implies the other rider MUST have been made to fall and fail to finish ??? I don’t know if you ride a bike but next time someone carves you up or drives dangerously close, just hold back from those feelings of changing something, reporting or filming or even complaining. Everyone will just say, hey you’re still here undamaged, doesn’t seem like anyone did anything.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- And we, what are we doing?Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- And yet, it attracts people, even you. What’s more, it attracts the rival fanboys to fill cyberspace with endless pointless my hero is better than your hero blabla that’s all been heard before and only helps sell the site as an advertising platform. You know what the solution is but most can’t resist. No different than women who follow and discuss celebs through gossip magazines.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- he is doing 460 watts for 35 min to achieve 7 w/kg with VO2 at 96 , just unreal numbers.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just do it, and put up with the consequencesJumpyjohn08-11-2026
- "was a headliner at the Tour de France" Nobody cared about Piddie. Only rivals that were there for Pogi, Jonas, Remco, Sexias, Lipo, Del Toro and they were all expected to lose. Piddie was not even in any conversation.abstractengineer08-11-2026
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