The much-discussed One Cycling venture suffered a critical blow when the UCI refused to award their new races WorldTour standing for 2026, however these behind One Biking insist their hopes to revolutionize professional biking are nonetheless alive.
Certainly, they’re now contemplating methods to problem the UCI, Tour de France organiser ASO and the established order of the game in order that the One Biking venture can succeed.
The Saudi Arabian SURJ Sports activities Funding fund, managed by the large Saudi PIF sovereign wealth fund, is able to finance One Biking through a €250 million funding.
SURJ CEO Dany Townsend has talked about desirous to have a ‘transformative’ moderately than ‘disruptive’ influence on sports activities that they spend money on, however SURJ and One Biking now appear able to be much more aggressive after the UCI slammed the door of their face.
A supply near the One Biking venture spoke to Cyclingnews on situation of anonymity. They urged that a lot of the largest client manufacturers on this planet are able to spend money on professional biking if the One Biking venture occurs and the game is remodeled.
“Sports activities which might be keen to rework and alter are fascinating to traders; those who aren’t will get left behind. Professional biking is on a precipice proper now,” the One Biking supply advised Cyclingnews.
“The consequence of burying your head within the sand may very well be the loss of life of you. Biking very a lot faces that threat.”
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One Biking had hoped to create 4 new WorldTour races for 2026 in North and South America and in Saudi Arabia, and embrace them in a brand new collection of twenty-two races. Nonetheless, the UCI Administration Committee deemed that it was “incompatible with the governance and regulatory framework of the UCI in addition to missing sporting coherence.”
The One Biking supply claimed that 20 main groups, together with 4 separate girls’s groups and a few French groups, have joined the venture. Numerous main race organisers are additionally a part of the venture, apparently inserting Tour de France organiser ASO in a minority.
Visma-Lease a Bike, EF Schooling-Easypost, Ineos Grenadiers, Soudal-QuickStep, Crimson Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, Lidl-Trek and different main males’s and ladies’s groups are mentioned to be able to grow to be shareholders within the One Biking administration firm. Race organisers Flanders Classics and Giro d’Italia organiser RCS Sport have been reported to be able to be a part of the venture however have steadfastly refused to touch upon their place.
One Biking believes it has 95% of the most effective riders within the sport concerned in its plans, with solely ASO taking a stand in opposition to One Biking. UCI President David Lappartient has tried to courtroom the Saudi funding for the broader good of biking, however in the end the UCI sided in opposition to giving One Biking races WorldTour standing.
In response, One Biking now appears able to attempt to overthrow the present governance construction of the game, with the AIGCP groups affiliation and the AIOCC race organisers affiliation prone to break up, as these concerned in One Biking take a unique course and push on with their plans.
These in One Biking appear particularly indignant with Lappartient, calling on the Frenchman to work for the broader good of the game, moderately than assist defend ASO’s dominance.
The most effective rider in the most effective races however extra monetization of the followers
Cyclingnews obtained a 150-page doc within the spring of 2024 that detailed One Biking’s technique to monetize followers, sponsors and broadcasters rather more.
It contains additional growing VIP hospitality areas at races and even perhaps charging followers to see races at particular places.
Digital know-how and trendy advertising strategies could be harnessed to monetise occasion rights, digital platforms, betting, gamification, merchandising and fan membership. No stone could be left unturned to search out new income and monetise the game.
Grand Excursions might maybe be shortened in a shake-up of the race calendar, and the One Biking groups have dedicated to creating their greatest riders race extra and so conflict extra usually.
One Biking means that the highest 10 riders on this planet race in opposition to one another 28% of the time, noting that Pogačar and Vingegaard solely raced in opposition to one another for the primary time since final 12 months’s Dauphine. Based mostly on a statistical evaluation and agreed race calendar, One Biking could have their riders race one another 72% of the time.
One Biking doesn’t appear afraid to problem the established order and tackle the UCI and ASO because it tries to maintain its plans alive.
They insist they don’t need a conflict or to spark a breakaway league. The One Biking groups and riders will nonetheless trip the Tour de France and the opposite WorldTour races, however are satisfied of their plans and are bold.
“We have a industrial proposition that we predict works. We predict it will develop income for the game. It will enable the groups and organisers which might be all dropping cash to probably earn money,” the supply advised Cyclingnews.
“I am undecided how on earth anybody presiding over a sport can ignore that or construct impediments for that change to occur.”
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