Rapha CEO Fran Millar says professional cycling \u201chas been failed structurally and commercially\u201d in a new foreword to The Rapha Roadmap, reissued today.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The cycling clothing company first released The Rapha Roadmap in 2019 as a \u201cblueprint for professional cycling\u201d, and it led to the creation of the Alternative Calendar for EF Pro Cycling and formed the basis of the Rapha Super-League initiative in the UK.<\/p>\n
Rapha<\/a> has reissued the plan, with a new foreword by Millar and introduction, because today marks the deadline for the UCI\u2019s consultation on the future of professional road cycling.<\/p>\n The UCI launched the consultation in February to develop professional road cycling\u2019s \u201clong-term appeal\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cAlthough cycling is now hugely popular across five continents, its media coverage and the revenues generated for its stakeholders do not yet fully reflect its potential,\u201d the UCI said at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cycling\u2019s international governing body said there has been several reforms in cycling that have helped to promote the development of the sport. But Millar\u2019s foreword paints an alternate picture.\u00a0<\/p>\n Millar was the CEO of Ineos Grenadiers (now Netcompany Ineos Cycling Team<\/a>) and then Belstaff before joining Rapha in September 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhat struck me most coming back to cycling after four years is not how much has changed, but how much hasn\u2019t. When I left my role as CEO of the Ineos Grenadiers, the sport was debating reform. I returned to find the debate had gone backwards \u2013 and that is deeply depressing,\u201d Millar writes in her foreword.\u00a0<\/p>\n She adds that the issues with the sport in The Rapha Roadmap seven years ago \u201care the same problems\u201d identified by the UCI\u2019s consultation in 2026.<\/p>\n She says the sport has an \u201cineffectual governance system that often seems to prioritise self-preservation over growth\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe questions haven’t changed. But the answers haven’t been implemented. And the sport can no longer afford the delay. We are living through times of extreme and rapid societal and technological change. Sports that understood this early and built a content strategy, data infrastructure and interactive communities have grown. Sports that didn’t have watched their audiences age, fragment and their commercial value stagnate,\u201d she writes.\u00a0<\/p>\n Millar further highlights the growth and popularity of the women\u2019s professional sport. She says sports such as Women\u2019s Super League and the Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup show what was possible when the people running those sports stopped making excuses about audience size and \u201cstarted making the content that grows one\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe time for endlessly debating and re-diagnosing the problem has passed. This consultation is an opportunity for action and change. I sincerely hope the UCI uses it this time,\u201d Millar says.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rapha worked with the original authors of the Roadmap, alongside cyclist and writer Joe Laverack, to review and update several of the proposal\u2019s suggestions and recommendations.\u00a0<\/p>\n These suggestions include moving the Women\u2019s WorldTour<\/a> to a closed-league system to\u00a0 aid economic predictability and long-term stability.<\/p>\n The Roadmap also suggests \u201cequitable financial guardrails\u201d, such as a spending cap, for the men\u2019s WorldTour<\/a> to counter \u201csuper teams\u201d, which lead to a “competitive imbalance\u201d with only certain teams dominating results.\u00a0<\/p>\n