{"id":318479,"date":"2025-12-01T13:47:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T13:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/318479\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T13:47:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T13:47:13","slug":"you-shouldve-been-here-10-or-20-years-ago-london-cyclists-amused-by-ranting-rider-who-moved-from-germany-but-finds-it-quite-insane-how-terrible-cycling-in-the-city-is-pro-cycling-ticket-deba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/318479\/","title":{"rendered":"“You should’ve been here 10 or 20 years ago…”: London cyclists amused by ranting rider who moved from Germany but finds it “quite insane how terrible” cycling in the city is; Pro cycling ticket debate rumbles on; Bike art + more on the live blog"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2025<\/p>\n

Wout van Aert<\/a>\u00a0has backed the idea to introduce ticketed sections at cycling’s biggest races in a bid to increase the money available to teams and riders, arguing charging\u00a0\u20ac5 does not go against the spirit of the sport.<\/p>\n

In fact, calling on his cyclocross\u00a0experience, the Belgian told De Tijd<\/a>: “If you charge \u20ac5 entry fee, that doesn’t mean it’s no longer for the people. The cyclocross asks for entry money, and nothing is more ‘of the people’\u00a0than that.”<\/p>\n

\"Julian<\/p>\n

The ticket discussion has been a feature of this off-season, former Giro stage winner\u00a0J\u00e9r\u00f4me Pineau\u00a0proposing the idea<\/a> for the final kilometres of Alpe d’Huez\u00a0at next summer’s Tour de France… IF the money was guaranteed to go to the teams, not race organiser ASO.<\/p>\n

Most proponents have suggested limiting ticketed areas to very short sections of the most popular climbs at the biggest races on the calendar (think the final section of Ventoux, Alpe d’Huez etc.), however the idea has still attracted the predictable disgust from some cycling fans who suggest it goes against the spirit of the sport<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Tadej<\/p>\n

Charging a small fee would, those in favour have argued, provide teams and riders a new income source at a time when many are struggling to keep the lights on from year to year. There have also been claims that it may even improve the roadside-viewing experience, making things safer for the riders too.<\/p>\n

For what it’s worth ASO, the organiser of the Tour, has definitively shut down any talk of tickets for Alpe d’Huez next summer.<\/p>\n

>\u00a0“Absolutely not on the agenda”: Tour de France organiser shuts down ticket idea to force fans to pay to watch on Alpe d’Huez<\/a><\/p>\n

We thought that might be the end of it, but Van Aert believes there could be some merit in charging roadside spectators a few euros for access to a prime spot. The Visma-Lease a Bike rider’s main point was that the ticket system is already in place for most cyclocross events, although critics might propose a difference between often-private events and racing on public roads.<\/p>\n

The Belgian pointed to cycling’s financial “fragility”, few teams enjoying stability from year to year and extremely reliant on sponsors. “[It]\u00a0would be much less of an issue if, alongside sponsorship income, there were also revenues coming from the sport itself,” Van Aert stated, putting TV rights forward as another proposal.<\/p>\n

\"Wout<\/p>\n

“When I see how the NBA controls its playing field, while still letting teams enjoy what comes in from TV money.\u00a0Cycling can learn a lot from that.<\/p>\n

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but a major race like the Ronde [van Vlaanderen] or the Tour stands or falls with us,\u00a0the riders and teams who come to take part. But as a team we don’t even receive compensation that covers the cost of that participation. That should really be a minimum. The pie could be divided more fairly.”<\/p>\n

>\u00a0Wout van Aert was spotted test riding a Paris\u2013Roubaix sector seven times in one day: but is he really “too kind”\u00a0to win?<\/a><\/p>\n

Van Aert’s comments came at the end of a week when Mark Cavendish too had spoken about pro cycling’s financial model, and hinted that he’d like to create his\u00a0own\u00a0team in the future “that is more along the lines of other sports”,\u00a0like Formula 1.<\/p>\n

The former world champion also criticised cycling’s current business model, which he argues is failing to “properly”\u00a0utilise a number of potential revenue streams, while implying that many current pros aren’t doing enough to make money in their own right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wout van Aert\u00a0has backed the idea to introduce ticketed sections at cycling’s biggest races in a bid to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-318479","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}