Pogačar's "Double" Looking More Likely; Th Giro's Best Stage; Is Amateurism Dead; An Idea for Industry Woes; WADA Stumbles Toward Olympics; Red Bull Cycling Sponsorships

Key Takeaways:

●        Pogačar: On To the Tour

●        The Giro’s Most Interesting and Controversial Stage

●        Is Amateurism Dead?

●        One Idea to Address Industry Woes

●        WADA’s Credibility in Question as Olympics Approach

●        Clarification on Red Bull Sponsorship

The 2024 Giro d’Italia has to be considered a successful race – Pogačar’s dominance from start to finish notwithstanding – as it boasted a well-balanced course and a strong field of stage hunters. Fans were energized by the re-emergence of Julian Alaphilippe, the rise of Jhonatan Narváez, and strong showings by previously unknown youngsters like Georg Steinhauser and Giulio Pellizzari. Pogačar matched Eddy Merckx’s single-edition Giro stage win record by winning a total of six stages, taking time on his GC rivals through every critical juncture, held the leader’s jersey for 20 out of the race’s 21 days – which nearly matched Gianni Bugno’s line-to-line lead in 1990 – and won by a margin not seen since 1965. Additionally, with his other biggest GC rival, Jonas Vingegaard, just starting to come back from injuries sustained at the Tour of the Basque Country, Pogačar’s has to be considered the odds-on favorite to win the Tour de France – even though that goal seemed a bit audacious just month ago. After a few days off, he will return to elevation and train until the sport’s marquee event commences in Florence on June 29. All eyes will now turn to the Tour, to see if Pogačar can indeed become the first rider to complete the historically difficult double since Marco Pantani did it, with some assistance, in 1998.

Ironically, Stage 16 was perhaps the most interesting stage of the race, and

only materialized after hours of haggling between the CPA riders’ union and race organizer RCS. The parties were at odds over how to proceed with poor weather and ended up deliberating for hours on how to proceed. Adding complexity to the situation was the fact that most of the team buses had already left, meaning the riders couldn’t simply ride out of town for a ceremonial procession before hopping into comfortable buses for transfer to the new start point. Furthermore, the start town Livigno had allegedly paid RCS roughly €400,000 to host the stage start, which was in the process of being relocated. In the end, the correct decision was made, in terms of rider safety, and RCS likely agreed to a pro bono visit to Livigno in the next few years. However, the controversy reflected poorly on the event, with riders referring to the race organizers as dinosaurs, and with race director Mauro Vegni allegedly going so far as threatening to throw out all the teams in the race except the VF-Bardiani team – to allow a small Italian team to win the race as punishment for the riders’ collective action.

Beyond Pogačar's personal brilliance, one of the biggest takeaways from the Giro was the emerging strength of his UAE team, which, despite sending a sub top-tier support team, easily controlled the race’s toughest stages and made sure their leader was never exposed or even in a position where he could be attacked. Outside of some backroom strategic changes that have clearly helped the team in 2024, this is mostly a product of their spending over the last few years – which has seen them build up an impressive rolodex of riders with the raw power to control a race from start to finish. With UAE’s strategy apparently being “buy as much young talent as other teams will sell you,” we are already seeing it copied by other deep-pocketed teams. The Giro’s runner-up team, Bora-Hansgrohe, is bolstering its roster for 2025 with the (rumored) additions of the Giro’s 20-year-old Italian sensation Giulio Pellizzari and Spanish powerhouse Oier Lazkano. Meanwhile, lower-budget teams like Groupama-FDJ, are apparently seeing their young talent being raided, with Lenny Martinez reportedly moving to Bahrain-Victorious for the 2025 season. This increasing gravitational pull of talent away from the “have-nots'' of the sport to the richer teams will inevitably start to generate more discussion of budget caps or other means of trying to maintain an acceptable level of competitive parity. Different techniques for ensuring competitiveness, as outlined in our recent Special Issue, may soon need to be given serious consideration. 

Amateurism would appear to be officially dead in the U.S. sporting landscape. As expected, this past week, the NCAA chose to settle with the plaintiffs (House vs. NCAA) in a $2.7 billion lawsuit – to avoid a likely loss and a potentially much larger penalty. At its core, the settlement creates a back-pay pipeline for athletes in the major university conferences who were not compensated for their Name/Image/Likeness in the past. As discussed in detail by Front Office Sports, this will likely force the evolution of a new landscape for NIL deals and how university athletes are paid. Will NIL collectives become official channels for disbursing “salaries” to athletes – in effect, offloading that responsibility to separate those payments from the NCAA’s own revenue streams and avoid future spending caps? Or will private equity investors – many of whom are already positioning to get involved – step in and completely disrupt the process? Other litigation in progress which could define athletes as university employees for benefits like health and disability insurance will not stop due to the House agreement, but new financial models will emerge. The only thing that is certain right now is that the amateur status in sports is being dismantled and replaced by one in which the athletes are paid as professional participants in a free market. One can understand why World Athletics made the unilateral move to add medal-based financial awards, ahead of other international federations like the UCI. All such amateur athletic organizations are likely to soon face legal challenges – and athlete demands for a share of the media rights, no matter the sport or the sport’s status in the Olympic portfolio.

It's clear that the cycling industry’s downturn has had a chilling effect on the sport's economics, with many trusted brands downsizing or folding outright. It may be worthwhile to reevaluate the market opportunities which are still there despite the gloom – a practice that savvy investors refocus on in any underperforming industry. It is well-known that key suppliers like Trek and Specialized have sidestepped independent local bike shop dealers to embrace a consumer direct mindset, going so far as to buy out literally hundreds of formerly independent shops in profitable markets to secure their dealer networks. But, as has been previously noted, (see Marc Sani commentary in Bicycle Retailer, May 2024 issue) the broader and more community-engaged independent dealer network – with its expertise to service the increasingly complex (and often frustrating) requirements of properly maintaining modern bicycles – is a fundamental advantage that the industry should build on, to market to and satisfy consumers. The real elephant in the room may be the tremendous investment made by the major bike brands to build out concept store networks that serve as local storefronts and DTC sales points. Both should be lauded for embracing sweeping consumer strategies, but consequently they are now heavily saddled with commercial real estate debt that – by all industry accounts – cannot be supported by the sales needed to float the storefront footprint. Like in any industry, where there is risk there is always opportunity. Perhaps the industry needs somehow to devote more resources to local independent dealers – to increase market outreach and consumer engagement initiatives. But that will take time to develop, due to short-term supplier overfocus with privatized dealer networks. More shrinkage may be inevitable, and cycling retail markets may be in for some choppy roads before we can get to pre-pandemic profitability.

We said this previously regarding the fallout of WADA’s recent scandal concerning 23 Chinese swimming “positive” cases, but … it gets worse before it gets worse. Both WADA and World Aquatics (formerly FINA) have been absolutely bludgeoned over how they handled the cases (or in this scandal, didn’t follow suspension and adjudication protocols), and continue to take heat, even as they clumsily convene an independent investigation to review the situation. While some may take issue with USADA’s prominent dissent and attacks on WADA’s missteps, the questions raised by CEO Travis Tygart – and the investigative journalism team which uncovered the positive cases – have yet to be addressed. That chorus of dissent was bolstered by fresh criticism from former WADA president David Howman, who again questioned why the WADA code and procedures were sidestepped to the detriment of anti-doping integrity and athlete trust. Finally, the parties were roasted by former USADA lawyer Bill Bock, a current member of World Aquatics’ independent anti-doping advisory board (ADAB, similar in purpose to the UCI’s former Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation – CADF). Bock contends that the “independent investigation” has excluded ADAB involvement despite it being the swimming organization’s actual independent investigative arm, and he went as far as to add “cover-up” to the title of his open letter on the matter to World Aquatics. While there has been some progress with recent WADA efforts – particularly with regards to rampant doping in East African athletics and distance running – this meltdown is further eroding athlete trust in the system and giving sponsors pause for concern, with just a couple months to go before the Paris Olympics begin.

The Women’s WorldTour convened in the UK last week for the much-anticipated restart of the three-stage Ride London event. While the parcours was not as challenging as prior editions, the stages provided a master class in race control strategies and leadout tactics by the SDWorx-Protime team. Lorena Wiebes swept all of the stages and the overall GC, with teammate and current world champion Lotte Kopecky providing much of the horsepower to set up her victories. Even with Wiebes’ victory and Kopecky’s steady return to top form after the spring classics, all eyes are on the team’s true superstar, Demi Vollering – who won the mountainous Tour of Burgos the week prior. The women’s stage racing season is now in full swing – with the tours of Britain, Switzerland, the women’s Giro, and the Tour de France Femmes all taking place between now and mid-August. Vollering is an outgoing asset for SDWorx-Protime, linked to FDJ for 2025 and the foreseeable future. Hence, it will be interesting to see how the team structures its race squads during this important stretch of the calendar, given that it chose to place its future financial commitment on Kopecky as its team leader. One thing is certain: the value of women riders is going up exponentially, and it is incumbent on the sport’s stakeholders to continually groom potential sponsors and media partners to meet the global demand for women’s professional road cycling.

We have questioned the future role of Red Bull sponsorship in cycling, and how its historical practice of sponsoring individual athletes will mesh with its new position as primary owner of a WorldTour team – Bora-Hansgrohe. When Red Bull announced its purchase of a controlling interest in the team, many wondered what this might imply for its individually sponsored riders – most notably Wout Van Aert and Tom Pidcock, both racing for key competitors to Bora. Could this have a competitive impact within individual races? Some even speculated that those riders might be eventually destined for the new Red Bull-sponsored team. This week, Bora principal Ralph Denk sought to respond to those rumors. Noting that the team typically doesn’t respond to rumors, Denk said “We have a partnership with Red Bull headquarters in Austria. Van Aert and Pidcock have deals with Red Bull Belgium and Red Bull UK respectively.” In addition, Denk said, “Van Aert and Pidcock have long-term contracts. We respect them.”