Early season racing spans the globe; new bellwethers for women's cycling; new approaches for talent identification; continuing controversy around Russia in sports ...

Key Takeaways:

●        Early 2023 WorldTour Action Spans the Globe

●        López Makes a Statement

●        More Bellwethers for the Growth of Women’s Sport

●        New Startup Could Revolutionize Talent Development

●        Continuing Controversy over Russian Sport Participation

The men’s pro cycling 2023 campaign continued to build over the weekend, with crowded slates highlighted at both Argentina’s Vuelta a San Juan and Australia’s Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. Also running concurrently were the more traditional European-based season-openers of GP la Marseillaise (won by American Neilson Powless) and the informal Challenge Mallorca stage race. On the one hand, it is nice to see the non-European based WorldTour events – like the big events in Australia and Argentina – back on the calendar after two years of COVID interruptions. On the other hand, these far-flung early season events place an enormous physical and psychological burden on the teams and riders, particularly in comparison to the past two years. One wonders if pro cycling should standardize an event or a series of events to serve as the de facto pro season kick-off – which the Challenge Mallorca, GP la Marseillaise, and Étoile de Bessèges have essentially acted as in the past two seasons?

On the road, the action at the Vuelta a San Juan might have simply been six sprint finishes and a single uphill battle on a mild grade. However, behind the scenes, eyebrows were raised by the sight of Miguel Ángel López (recently terminated by Astana) handily dropping some of the sport’s biggest stars – like Remco Evenepoel, Egan Bernal (who looks back to form) and Filippo Ganna – and eventually taking overall victory. It represents rather poor optics for the sport when a rider deemed untrustworthy at racing’s elite level easily drops some of the best riders in the World. However, it’s also likely that López’s performance may spark some debate inside WorldTour teams with sub-par rosters about whether to take the risk of picking off López via a late signing. The chance to sign a talented climber in the prime of his career at a budget rate doesn’t come along very often in the sport, but in the case of López it would be fraught with risk. After his win, López, with his characteristic bravado, said, “We are a small team but we look like WorldTour.”

Outside of López’s performance and the confirmation that Bernal is back (though he had to withdraw after Saturday’s stage with a sore knee) the other big topic of San Juan’s Queen stage was Filippo Ganna being fined for riding in an illegal aero position. While it is debatable how much of an advantage Ganna actually received by bending the rules, it is notable that he only received a small financial and UCI points fine. Meanwhile, Marianne Vos, one of the sport’s biggest female stars, was disqualified from a race last year for essentially the same infraction. This once again calls into question the UCI’s priorities, focus and consistency.

Women’s World Cup soccer continues to be a bellwether for the continued growth and rising economic power of all women’s sports – including women’s cycling. Fresh off the record-setting successes of the 2022 UEFA tournament, the upcoming 2023 women’s World Cup has already exceeded 500,000 ticket sales for the co-hosted Australia/New Zealand venues and is on pace to eclipse the 1.1 million tickets sold for the 2019 France edition. FIFA is bullishly pivoting on the ticket indicators to delay final bids and allocations for the tournament’s broadcast rights, believing that current offers are too low for the exposure that the competition will provide to advertisers and programming providers. It’s possible that the licensing fees will approach those of the men’s 2022 Qatar edition. And FIFA is not alone in its optimism; there are similar economic patterns between women’s soccer and international women’s basketball. There are thriving European women’s basketball leagues, and now the flagship WNBA has committed to two additional franchises by 2025 and is reportedly eyeing expansion into Canada, potentially opening more international markets and further accelerating the sport’s growth. All of these data points only reemphasize the clear economic and audience opportunity that is there for the taking in women’s cycling.

USA Cycling has launched a new Search for Speed talent identification program. The program is geared to “introduce track cycling to diverse and under-represented communities in Los Angeles, providing youth and young adults with a dedicated pathway to the U.S. National Team.” The program will utilize a multi-stage screening process to identify key talent markers and introduce participants to track cycling. The objective is to identify undiscovered track cycling talent in Los Angeles, leading up to the 2028 Olympic Games in that city. Backed by Rapha, Look Cycles and Wattbike, the program intends to tap into communities of color in one of the most diverse cities in the world. USAC also announced a revamping of its Athlete Development Pathway (ADP) – a pipeline that will create a cohesive pathway of educational and development opportunities so that young athletes can be better equipped to further their career to the next level.

A recent FUTRSPRT podcast took a deeper look at the soon-to-be launched Nordensa platform that may revolutionize, or even upend, the traditional soccer transfer market. Nordensa will provide soccer's billions of global fans a data-backed service that allows them to identify undiscovered youth talent in the myriad regional development teams in markets that are often overlooked. Furthermore, this project will enable fan investment (via a crowdsource model) in the development of those players, whereby they can earn a share of the transfer fees if and when those players sign contracts to play in the major football leagues. The service could disrupt the traditional agent/player discovery ecosystem by allowing fans to participate at the central hub of talent promotion. There are robust parallels to other sports which are seeing vast upheavals in talent promotion. For example, the recent decision by the NCAA to allow amateur athletes ownership of their Name/Image/Likeness (the NIL market) has completely reshaped the U.S. amateur sports market in less than 18 months – changing the visibility, market value, and recruiting model for high school athletes. In turn, this has accelerated the realignment of virtually every major collegiate sports conference, reflecting reinvigorated broadcast market demands.

Professional cycling has been going through a similar revolution of its own, as WorldTour level teams add new talent identification systems and camps aimed at young athletes who may have the raw talent – but perhaps not the experience, visibility or financial means – to compete at higher levels of the sport, and at ever-younger ages. This may have impacted national federation programs by essentially filtering and sequestering incoming talent – and may be one reason why federations like USAC are revamping their development tracks, as noted above. However, pro cycling's athletes and teams are still largely at the mercy of an often unprofessional and manipulative rider/agent model. Perhaps if Nordensa hits a sweet spot with soccer's fans, a similar startup pivoting on fan interest and crowdsourcing could interrupt cycling's insular rider transfer model and – similar to the NCAA’s NIL economic reinvention – accelerate demand for the sport's content in the future.

Controversy over Russian athletic participation continues unabated in the shadow of the Ukraine war. The IOC has adjusted its position, now indicating that it wants Russian and Belarusian athletes to be able to participate in the 2024 Paris Olympics, saying this week that “no athlete should be prevented from competing just because of their passport." The announcement came just days after Ukrainian President Zelenskyy called upon French President Macron for a complete ban on Russian participation. The Ukrainian athletes group went further, accusing the IOC of being “a servant to Russia, and suggesting that "It is becoming increasingly clear that Russia has complete control over the IOC and its leadership …. the IOC continues to be on the wrong side of history with this decision that favours politics over principle and war over peace." Although Ukraine has threatened to boycott the Olympics if Russian athletes are invited, the IOC’s latest move was supported by the U.S.; most European countries have not yet taken a stance. Meanwhile, at the Australian open, Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka took the women’s title, while one Russian man made the semi-final – playing as “neutral” athletes. The IOC continues to claim that it is free from political pressure – but that argument is becoming laughable. Axios neatly summarized the situation. “In February, the IOC supported banning certain athletes ‘to protect the integrity of global sports.’ Now it wants those same athletes to participate to protect the "unifying mission of the Olympic movement."

We have commented frequently in the past about the Netflix Drive to Survive series, and the remarkable impact it has had upon Formula 1 fan growth, particularly in the United States. And there has been much follow-on hype and speculation around what the respective knock-off Netflix shows on tennis, golf and pro cycling may do for their individual sports. The new tennis series, entitled Break Point, was recently released – produced by the same Box to Box film company, which has been a big beneficiary of the increased demand for sports documentaries. SportsPro Media posted a “wait and see” review of the first season, saying “In the same way that many of the players featured in Break Point need more time to become household names, the show itself needs longer to cement itself in the minds of sports fans….” Other reviewers had a distinctly more ho-hum take on the series. Meanwhile, we can cross our fingers and hope that the 8-episode and still unnamed cycling series will help publicize and build new audiences for this sport. The latest information suggests that the series will be released shortly before the Tour begins in early July.