Will the Super League start in 2026? All the keys to One Cycling's project that would revolutionize cycling
Cycling
Is cycling about to change as we know it? Rumours of the creation of a Super League have been growing over the past 2 years. At first, it wasn't taken too seriously. But now it looks like it's going to be a reality.
Last June 2024, Cycling News made it known that One Cycling, the name the Super League will bear, managed to find the necessary funding from a private Saudi Arabian investor. Almost a year later, Wielerflits has managed to bring to light important new details about this ambitious project. Chief among them is that there is nothing that can stop the creation of the Super League. The final details are already being worked out, and the competition is planned to start in 2026.
The idea of One Cycling has always been led by Richard Plugge, director of Team Visma | Lease a Bike. One of the main premises for which this Super League was conceived is based on the fact that cycling is in danger of falling further and further behind due to conservatism and deep divisions. For that reason, there was a need to look for new investors to help revolutionize the competition as it is known today.
In recent months, the Super League idea has not gone unnoticed among the most important figures in the peloton. For example, UAE Team Emirates - XRG's Joxean Matxín's view on the matter was very clear: he does not believe that anything should be done for the teams themselves, but cycling could do with some centralization in the organization.
"Here (in cycling) maybe the fact that there are so many organizers means that there are so many individualized interests. To be able to organize something beyond your own race or individual races, to create a collective that prevails over individuality can be interesting," said the UAE boss.
The current problem of the Super League
However, not everything is settled. Right now, the main problem One Cycling is facing is that of the ASO (Amaury Sport Organisation). ASO is one of the main organizers of racing events. The French are totally against the Super League, and are trying to boycott it in order to remain in control.
What does this mean? That the Super League would not feature in its format major races such as the Tour de France, the Vuelta a Espana, Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Paris-Nice and the Criterium du Dauphiné.
However, that has not deterred One Cycling. The Super League wants its competitions to be able to be run in conjunction with those of the ASO without any problems. But of course, starting a Super League without the Tour de France is far from the ideal scenario. In the end, it is the biggest race in the world, the one that attracts the most teams, fans, sponsors..., attracts the most.
What is the opinion of the UCI President?
For David Lappartient, president of the UCI, there is a dual interest:
- On the one hand, Lappartient has a direct line to the ASO, and that relationship must be taken care of.
- On the other hand, Saudi Arabia is behind the One Cycling project, and through the country it can get the votes it needs to achieve the IOC presidency to which it aspires.
It should also be noted that ASO has races in Saudi Arabia. In cycling, it organizes the AlUla Tour. Also the Dakar Rally in motorsport. So One Cycling could leverage it to put pressure on ASO from that location.
Despite the problems mentioned above, on paper there is a good plan. It is not yet clear how it will work in practice. But the cycling Super League is practically a reality. With or without ASO, it looks like a project that will come into being. In fact, if it were not for ASO's refusal, it is very likely that its birth would have already been made official.
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- Just like Dwars door Vlaanderen, the Ronde van Vlaanderen was/is NOT on MAX. Get your facts straight.Ben04-04-2025
- You might bounce more for the same power, but not the same speed. Sending 20 kgs over a jump at 20 kph will fly just as far as 10 kgs at the same speed. Again, Galileo demonstrated this.acem8204-04-2025
- So, you're saying that doing a bunch of small hops on a bike is easier if you're heavier? Why do people buy lighter bikes, then? Why do they generally feel better and faster? An appeal to "rhythm" is not helpful either, as the right "rhythm" might be on the lighter or heavier side of things, and as it varies, it's likely a wash either way. Then we are left with the physics truth that it takes less power to lift lighter things than heavier things.acem8204-04-2025
- No, weight doesn't affect the ability to go into the wind at all. It's all CdA vs power at that point. For example, it's "obvious" that a heavier object falls faster than a lighter one. But, absent wind resistance, it's not true (Galileo demonstrated this). An appeal to "obviousness" doesn't matter when the physics is clear. And yes, you have to be able to hold everything else constant, or you can't determine anything! So, imagine a 300 watt rider at 80 kgs with a CdA of 2.0, then imagine that same rider at 70 kgs with a CdA of 2.0. (Assume ideal tire pressure for both, same bike.) Which one can ride over a bumpy road fastest? The lighter one, as he doesn't have to lift as much. That's also why when they test bikes on 5 star cobbled sectors, the MTB goes faster than even a cobble-build road bike. Even though rolling resistance is higher on a flat road, and the CdA is junk, it smooths out the cobbles, allowing the person to not lift as much as they otherwise would.acem8204-04-2025
- I disagree. If you have lower weight, you will bounce more at the same speed, meaning that you will spend more time in the air and shorter time on the ground, as a consequence, when you are on the ground you have to produce more force for the same speedvappaxbipmv04-04-2025
- That’s not quite true, even steep climbs and sudden gradient changes can be considered as remaining tangential to the wheel whereas the occasional dip between cobbles a wheel drops into cannot, as such riding over cobbles can become like a permanent surmounting of small obstacles that hit back into your wheel slowing you drastically if you don’t have the right rhythm to “fly” on the mounds, here again the greater the momentum the less these obstacles reduce your speed. But, it is but one factor, you cannot decide on this alone. Like with natural surface ripple formation on desert tracks used by vehicles, there is an optimal speed range to efficiently pass over such surfaces, too fast or slow and your car gets shaken to pieces from the “harmonics” in the vibrations caused. Pretty sure the same applies to riding on cobbles.Mistermaumau04-04-2025
- I am saying I have an open mind at the moment for your cobbles theory but cannot agree with your wind statement (and by extrapolation sprinting since that implies speeds where wind is by far the limiting factor). Had you argued all things not being equal I could have agreed with you but if we thus assume 2 objets of the same size and speed but with differing weights, it is completely obvious that the lighter one will suffer faster in the wind. Extrapolate to the extreme, drop stuff off cliffs or just remember your momentum equations to verify. Now, obviously in real life we have to assume riders of different weights won’t have the same wind hitting surface but you cannot generalise at all then as you can have very unaerodynamic light riders and very aerodynamic heavy ones because it isn’t weight that defines CdA, Teslas have an incredible CdA and are ridiculously heavy, and someone like Harry Levreyssen is a Tesla in cycling.Mistermaumau04-04-2025
- When Roglic beat Geraint Thomas on the last day's TT at the Giro, I remember just how unbelievably emotional his team was. One guy, I forget who, German rider I think, was interviewed and was nearly speechless with a really drawn out "fuuuuuuuuuck it's incredible" comment. And then something even more amazing happened. Geraint Thomas came through the ranks of the Jumbo Visma riders and congratulated them all. True, honest, sincere, sportsmanlike, and celebratory of what had been achieved. Here he was, getting second, and he meant it. And cycling these days is like that, as you say - the way Pogacar hugged Matthews in Quebec, the way Matthews congratulated Pogacar in Montreal, on and on they honor and respect each other. It's pretty great.RidesHills04-04-2025
- Not sure exactly what you are saying, but if you're implying that being heavier is helpful if you're going against the wind or sprinting, then no, it isn't. Ceteris paribus (all else held equal) being a lighter cyclist is always better, save downhill. The reason why heavier cyclists do relatively better than lighter ones on flatter courses is because they will have to have a higher power than the lighter cyclist in order to have any chance at all against them, and flatter courses mean that the lighter cyclist has nowhere to display the better power to weight ratio, meaning that significant ratio is power to CdA, which is usually an advantage to the heavier cyclist.acem8204-04-2025
- Going over bumps is equivalent to going over many small climbs. Lower weight is always a good thing (ceteris paribus) except when going downhill, and even then it's not that advantageous if the downhill is at all technical.acem8204-04-2025