{"id":610532,"date":"2026-05-29T15:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T15:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/610532\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T15:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T15:20:09","slug":"as-if-pogacar-were-riding-for-cofidis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/610532\/","title":{"rendered":"As if Pogacar were riding for Cofidis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jonathan Vaughters<\/a> doesn’t think seeing an all-conquering Tadej Pogacar<\/a> is good for the sport of cycling, but thinks he knows exactly what could be done to even the odds for smaller teams. The EF Education-EasyPost<\/a> team manager has advocated for a salary cap-style financial system to be implemented going forward.<\/p>\n

With Pogacar alonside Mathieu Van Der Poel, Remco Evenepoel and Jonas Vingegaard among those dominating grand tours and monument races, Vaughters knows more than many what it’s like to be a small fish competing in the big pond.<\/p>\n

His vision is to create a salary cap system<\/a> that will limit the amount cycling teams are allowed to spend on salaries. In practice, he thinks a rider of Pogacar’s wage demands would of course still earn that amount, but would mean that the team would not have the resources to add many other high-earning teammates around a star rider – likening it to be like seeing the Slovenian rider with a lower budget team such as Cofidis.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cI don\u2019t know if Pogacar\u2019s dominance is necessarily good for the sport, but it is interesting to see how it might be,\u201d Vaughters said on Team EF Coaching’s The Cycling Performance Podcast.<\/a>Vaughters advocates for salary cap<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cPogacar can still earn his 10 million euros a year, but the rest of the team will have to make do with the minimum. As if Pogacar were riding for Cofidis .\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Vaughters sees the positive effects for fans being increased unpredictability. Meaning teams with the top stars would theoretically have weaker teammates around their stars, making it more difficult for them to control races for them – thus producing more unpredictable and exciting situations.<\/p>\n

Vaughters said: \u201cThen we have an interesting race and I become curious again about who wins. Now you have the strongest rider riding for the strongest team. That becomes too predictable. You want a sport that isn’t like that, where you don’t know who is going to win until the very last moment. That is what the fans want.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the Strade Bianche, you know every year where Pogacar is going to attack,\u201d Vaughters says. \u201cNow suppose his team can\u2019t control anything and, after his attack, he first has to bring back a breakaway of forty riders; that is when it really gets interesting again.\u201d<\/p>\n