The Cycling Super League: Why the UCI Said No

Early this week, the UCI released some news on the future of pro cycling. Included in these announcements were some new restrictions for the bikes for next year, but more interesting to me is that the UCI rejected a proposal for a so-called cycling Super League. The cycling Super League is a proposal by an organization called One Cycling, who have found advocacy from many of the team leaders in the pro peloton and plenty of financial backing from a Saudi investment fund. The goal with this Super League is to make cycling easier to understand for the average viewer and to promote more compelling season-long narratives. So with support from key figures in the sport and the money to back it, why isn't the UCI interested in exploring this path to make the sport more engaging for the modern audience?

My understanding of the Super League is that it proposes to be a simpler calendar, with races that are easy to understand, and more streamlined media rights. The aim of these things is to increase viewership across the whole calendar and, in doing so, create a space for athletes to grow and develop their stories across more races throughout the year. Ultimately, the end goal is to bring cycling to a wider audience while at the same time better distributing the profit pools through the organizers, teams, athletes, and all the other parties involved.

From my research, it seems like this proposed format would be a significant departure from the traditional cycling calendar, and if there is one thing that is obvious about the cycling community, it is that it is hesitant to change. This alone would be a problem, but One Cycling has one other major hurdle to overcome, and that is the ASO. ASO is the dark horse organization in the road cycling industry, and I would argue that they might be even more influential than the UCI themselves. This is because the ASO organizes and owns the rights to a large number of the most important races in the cycling calendar. These races include the Tour de France, La Vuelta, Paris Roubaix, Paris Nice, Liège Bastogne Liège, and the Critérium du Dauphiné, to name a few. This gives them lots of leverage over the future of pro cycling.

Although One Cycling has faced some hurdles within their plan to revolutionize pro cycling, it doesn't mean that they will not have some impact moving forward. This story has lots of similarities to the impact that LIV Golf made in the golfing world. This story also was about a Middle Eastern-backed organization proposing an alternative calendar to the traditional golf tournaments. After ups and downs, LIV was able to have a lasting impact in golf and eventually merged with the PGA, and in doing so, brought the legacy that the PGA has to offer into a more modern era and more tailored to the modern viewer. Based on One Cycling's goals, this has to be what they found inspiration from, and for me personally, I am here for it. I know that cycling is one of the greatest sports for really compelling narratives to be created through racing. However, in its current form, I believe it is falling short of its reach potential because of its high bar of entry to understand the nuances of the sport.