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- As long as they aren't paying him ridiculous then Alaphilippe's a success. One huge win, good visibility for the team, a handful of solid results and the second highest point total on the team
- Hirschi was definitely a miss, Alaphilippe not so much, won Quebec and as a former WC, brought attention
- He and Marc Hirshi were a Miss for the team but they did the points haul though
- A clickbait on steroids. What does this article has to do with Contador/Armstrong rivalry?
- Yet there's 3 teams in the World Tour who are technically in Asia so the only reason he'd not think possible is he was ignorant
- One reason the smaller teams might have rejected the salary cap proposal is that many times a salary cap also sets a minimum spend by team.If this minimum spend is higher than current budgets, teams will reject it. IMO all teams say they want to win, but very few do. They are actually just a vehicle for an owner to make money.
- I have never watched these farces and never will
- Those former pros are correct but even they aren't coming close to recognizing how bad things are. The only place cycling is healthy is at the top, wealthiest level. The WT races and the top 5-6 teams. Everywhere else the sport is in imminent danger of collapse.
Smaller races are hanging by a thread. The rely on community investment, local businesses and volunteers, all of which are disappearing. These races used to survive by featuring top riders, who used them to train for the bigger events. Now riders don't need to do that. Pogacar raced one of the Italian fall semi-classics but otherwise every race he did was a WT race. The only way now to get top riders is by offering huge appearance fees. Most of these smaller races are running deficits, a situation that's doomed to failure. Remember the Criterium International? The Tour of Picardy? The Tour of the Mining Valleys? Midi Libre? All gone, soon to be followed by dozens of others.
The B&B Hotels collapse is a massive warning bell. Prospective sponsors know that unless they're willing to fund a team to the tune of 30 million or more, they're doomed to nothing but TV breakaways and the occasional French Cup race or small stage win. Why would a corporate sponsor kick in $8 million when they know for a fact it'll result in basically zero success? UAE winning 100 races is a disaster, nothing to celebrate, it's merely a sign of a sick, ailing sport.
It's time to admit the unthinkable. A sport that takes in zero ticket sales can never be a major sport, competing with football or F1 for viewers. It just can't. How much does Liverpool FC, or the Dallas Cowboys make from one home game in ticket sales? I'm guessing it's equal to about a third of an entire low-end team's budget for the season. It's time for a hard budget cap for teams and a drastic lowering of expectations. Selling tickets to the final few k's of Alpe D'Huez or the finish of a sprint stage isn't going to come close to fixing things.
- to each his own, but yet again I agree with Mads. he is so honest about all of this. these races are not at all interesting to me.
- I think that you have to accept these 'races' for what they are. They are strictly promotional events designed to help draw new fans to the sport. They are not in any way intended for any regular fans of professional cycling, as they can, in the words of Mads Peterson, be 'so awful to watch'.
They've been around for a long time, and from what I can see, the people that attend them are greatly enjoying themselves.
santiagobenites12-11-2025