{"id":420830,"date":"2026-01-18T08:11:39","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T08:11:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/420830\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T08:11:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T08:11:39","slug":"turning-pro-cycling-into-f1-or-motogp-wont-improve-things-for-anyone-heres-what-you-told-us-about-pro-cyclings-funding-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/420830\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Turning pro cycling into F1 or MOTOGP won’t improve things for anyone\u2019 \u2013 here’s what you told us about pro cycling\u2019s funding problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

I was provocative this week when I wrote a piece about WorldTour team funding and equipment. I didn\u2019t anticipate how viscerally some of you would react to the suggestion that \u201cthe UCI should ban selling pro bikes to customers\u201d<\/a> \u2013 but perhaps that proves the point that pro cycling and ordinary cycling are still deeply wrapped up in one another.<\/p>\n

There was a heady mix of outrage, humour and frustration, and amongst the worst of it \u2013 one guy called me a nasty name \u2013 there was also some thoughtful reflection.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

For others, my words were a clumsy but worthwhile attempt to question whether the way pro cycling is funded \u2013 and marketed \u2013 is still fit for purpose.<\/p>\n

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This was never an argument about telling people what they are and aren\u2019t allowed to ride. As one commenter put it bluntly: \u201cCycling is as expensive as you make it.\u201d<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t argue with that, it\u2019s true and always has been. Nobody is forced to buy a \u00a312,000 bike. Shimano<\/a> 105 and SRAM Rival is, as another reader noted, \u201ca million times better than what we used in the 80\u2019s and in real dollars, cheaper.\u201d<\/p>\n

The question I was asking \u2013 clumsily for some \u2013 was not about consumer freedom, but about whether the current \u2018race it on Sunday, sell it on Monday\u2019 model is still a viable one.<\/a><\/p>\n

Who funds WorldTour cycling? <\/p>\n

Some readers pointed out that bike sales don\u2019t fund WorldTour teams, which is true, everything from supermarkets to chemical companies do.<\/p>\n

The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

\u201cYour premise is flat out wrong. No pro team is funded primarily by the bike sponsor,\u201d wrote one reader. Another added: \u201cThe money comes from insurance companies, supermarket chains, chemical conglomerates, and nation-states trying to convince potential tourists that they won\u2019t be beheaded if they visit on holiday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whilst I won\u2019t comment on the more colourful end of that statement, the comment is absolutely correct in that WorldTour teams are overwhelmingly funded by non-cycling sponsors: Ineos, Lidl, Soudal, Intermarche, etc. Bike manufacturers contribute relatively little to the overall team budgets, especially when compared to rider salaries and staff costs which account for roughly 60% of expenditure.<\/p>\n

However, I don\u2019t think that reality undermines my argument; it strengthens it. You can’t get blood out of a stone as they say, and you can’t make more from sponsorship without offering more, commercially.<\/p>\n

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Bike brands don\u2019t always fund teams directly, but their entire commercial justification for being there is still rooted in selling the products they bring to the race, through association. Credibility, aspiration, halo effect \u2013 call it what you like \u2013 but it remains a sales-led model. And that model comes with consequences, like incremental upgrades, accelerating cycles.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps the problem is with the margins cycling companies charge on increasingly shorter time frames,\u201d one commenter perceptively wrote. \u201cThey seem to charge more for incremental upgrades that are released with greater frequency.\u201d<\/p>\n

The system is geared up to make that the norm. The UCI requirement that everything raced must also be sold pushes manufacturers into a relentless cycle of new aero claims, marginal gains, and annual range-refreshes. The tech isn\u2019t the problem. It\u2019s the commercial pressure that comes with it.<\/p>\n

As a result, the WorldTour increasingly is a fancy and endless catalogue, rather than a sporting property whose value exists independent of what\u2019s bolted to the bikes. Decouple the product development and product strategy from the racing, and you could free up a ton of resources to help grow the sports appeal, through greater brand value.<\/p>\n

People want to buy what they see<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat way to kill the sport. People want to buy what they see,\u201d one person wrote. \u201cIf a person wants to buy Tadej\u2019s bike, why not give him that freedom?\u201d<\/p>\n

I love riding pro bikes when I get the chance, and I\u2019d love to own one. But that freedom to go out and buy it has been deliberately cultivated to the exclusion of almost everything else. My argument was not that aspiration is bad. It\u2019s that that aspiration doesn\u2019t have to be purely transactional.<\/p>\n

Formula 1 fans didn\u2019t stop loving Ferrari because they couldn’t buy Lewis Hamilton\u2019s car. MotoGP hasn\u2019t collapsed because no one can ride an active-aero factory Ducati. Those sports sell access, narrative, prestige and drama \u2013 not the cars and bikes.<\/p>\n

Peter Coyle, who\u2019s own thoughts inspired my original post, argued in a follow up post that whilst the core of my thinking was on the right track, the solution I\u2019d offered was somewhat detached<\/a>. He felt the idea of a tech lock just puts struggling bike brands under more pressure, and would kneecap brands that wouldn\u2019t or couldn\u2019t wear a change that seismic.<\/p>\n

His alternative, which to me makes far more sense and again, deserves attention, was one of a homologation model, where brands would still be required to prepare their ideas for sale in products, but the resultant bikes would be sold as strictly limited homologation models.<\/p>\n

Further, reimagining or restricting the UCI-competition badge for just those bikes, restoring its prestige, and adding value for customers that covet the very highest tech.<\/p>\n

In this approach, people with the cash could still have the chance of buying one, or we as fans would have the chance to see one out on the road, but the limited approach would allow for pricing that might meet some of the development costs.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Crowd\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: \u00a0ANDREAS SOLARO \/ AFP via Getty Images)\u201cTurning cycling into F1 won\u2019t help anyone but marketing departments\u201d<\/p>\n

Improving things for marketing departments was my point \u2013 just not in the way many assumed I meant it.<\/p>\n

What if manufacturers were incentivised to invest in WorldTour cycling as brand builders, not catalogue managers? What if their value came from storytelling, innovation, fan engagement and long term association \u2013 instead of being forced to focus on shifting units tied to a seasonal cycle?<\/p>\n

Decoupling race technology from immediate retail availability (through a change in the rules, or manufacturer consensus) wouldn\u2019t reduce consumer choice, it could free it, allowing consumer bikes to be designed for durability, usability and value (and performance of course), while the very highest specification race bikes could be designed unapologetically for one job only.<\/p>\n

While WorldTour budgets continue to inflate, sponsor lifecycles are not predictable and remain fragile. This forces most teams to live year to year, entirely dependent on title backers who owe them nothing. As tech progresses and gets ever hungrier for cash, it all feels unsustainable.<\/p>\n

I still think my suggestion of this opportunity to shift the focus could expand the appeal of the sport, deliver real growth, and in turn could unlock commercial opportunities that will sustain and grow the sport.<\/p>\n

Whatever the answer, it\u2019s not really ever going to be about \u2018banning anyone\u2019s bike\u2019, regardless of how good a headline that might be. Judging by the anger, humour, passion and insight in the comments from our readers \u2013 we all care deeply enough about the sport to argue about it.<\/p>\n

That at least is something pro cycling can still fully rely on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I was provocative this week when I wrote a piece about WorldTour team funding and equipment. I didn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-420830","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}