How dependent is pro cycling on oil? The high price today ($125 a barrel) has repercussions for team budgets set last autumn.
A team bus that cost €1,000 to fill up the tank with diesel now costs $1,500, likewise for the fleets of cars and other trucks used by teams. Aviation is getting more expensive with rising fuel surcharges and it’s a big but less visible cost to teams as it is largely how riders commute to races. If rider wages typically make up 70-80% of a team budget, these travel costs account for a large share of the other spending items. The increase now means budget headaches, especially for teams that don’t have credit lines with their sponsors or owners but have regular contracts. It’ll likely mean some teams cutting altitude training camps and other expenses later this year and trying to run smaller support crews.
The oil price is reflecting scarcity in the Gulf. So while a high price ought to be lucrative for the likes of UAE and Bahrain, it’s because they’re struggling to export. We’ll see if this has knock-on effects for their eponymous teams. We’ve had reports that the Bahrain team riders have not had salaries paid on time; but talk of a new co-sponsor coming too. Ineos has had financial woes because high oil prices mean high energy and input costs but its debt isn’t worrying traders like it did earlier this year, in tiny part because the company has cut back on sports sponsorship. TotalEnergies will be making bumper profits but this does not mean they want to spend more on cycling; French newspapers report talk of a windfall tax. Uno-X’s network of service stations could be busy installing more charging points as Norwegian among the 7,272 new car registrations in February were only 66 hybrid motors and 67 diesel and 12 petrol cars, the rest were electric.
This fuel cost is also an issue for organisers that rely on a convoy of vehicles to make races happen, from trucks to ferry crowd barriers and finish arches into place to motos carrying commissaires, all are thirsty for oil.
The real concern is not that it now costs €45 instead of €30 to fill up a race moto with unleaded. Instead that corporate sponsorship could dry up faster than you can say recession.
Uncertain times?
Not at the Giro at least. First João Almeida, now Richard Carapaz is the latest Giro contender out of the race before it’s even started. It’s a big loss to the race as while Vingegaard seemed likely to win against them, Carapaz is the kind of rider who is willing to make moves. Back in 2024 Pogačar got five chainrings in the preview and then four riders – O’Connor, Thomas, Arensman, Martinez – were generously given one chainring and it feels similar this time around.
Ineos + Netcompany = ?
Danish IT firm Netcompany has been unveiled as the new co-sponsor of the Ineos team alongside TotalEnergies. Read that sentence again and you might wonder what it means, is it still the Ineos team? For now as there’s no word on branding and identity yet. It’ll probably become Netcompany-Total Energies or Total Energies-Netcompany in 2027, once the French oil major drops its deal with the second-tier French team.
The arrival of Total saw the team go on a shopping spree for French riders with Dorian Godon and Kévin Vauquelin; it’s less likely Netcompany wants the same effect as the Danish firm is keen to promote itself outside of Denmark, that’s a large reason behind the sponsoring. The bigger question is which riders the team is targetting or even has signed already for next year; and then beyond. Total boss Patrick Pouyanné takes an interest in cycling was willing to fund Julian Alaphilippe’s move to TotalEnergies… he’s bound to be interested in Paul Seixas now.
Waiting for Godon
Dorian Godon is having his best ever season with stage wins in Paris-Nice, the Volta Catalunya and now Romandie and and it’s still just April. He’ll turn 30 in May and he’s a good case study in late development. A second category amateur in 2015, he turned pro with Cofidis in 2017 while continuing to study for a physiotherapy degree, an educational path that took him eight years to complete. So a late developer and more proof that teams can find talent beyond the junior ranks. But just not a Tour de France winner which is what most teams are desperate for. The next Pogačar or Seixas may not be in the pro peloton today but there are plenty of potential World Tour TT and sprint winners aged 25 in the peloton and beyond.
Minus One Cycling
Talking of hidden talent, is the One Cycling breakaway project done, has it been reeled in and then dropped? Not so say its backers but with Saudi funding for the Liv golf venture reportedly on the verge of being pulled, the confident sounds about sports investment from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund have got a lot quieter. But with One Cycling it seems less about capital drying up and more the project’s plans repeating the same mistakes as other breakaway leagues where it couldn’t include the Tour de France, and the alternative proposal sounded poor.
New kit but no news
After teasing the release of a special team kit for the Tour de France, Visma-LAB asked people to chose between two versions. It was part public appeal, part email-harvesting exercise as a vote was only possible by signing up with personal data. It’s old news by now but two things still worth mentioning. First black kit is not hotter than the cream version. Yes black absorbs more heat faster, but as the fabric involved is so light and thin it cannot hold much energy, plus black fabric tends to let less light through, preserving the skin. In short it’s not so much the colour but the weight and type of fabric that determines cooling. Second for all the kit reveals, still no news on a replacement sponsor for Visma yet.
Sunshine and rainbow jerseys
Finally the Tour de Romandie’s weather curse seems to be over, the Alpine stage race should enjoy good weather, or just as apparently it poured minutes after the prologue concluded. But with clouds on the horizon and not just the chance of rain or the final stage.
The event has lost a prime sponsor in Le Maréchal – a cheese company, what else? – whose name was on the yellow jersey and each day the race leader would get a big triangle of cheese, presumably to the delight of team staff. According to local newspaper 24 Heures this sponsorship deal was worth 500,000 Swiss Francs and 10% of the race budget. There ought to be companies or local interests able to meet this or get close.
But beyond race seems to have more of an identity challenge, for starters the Romandie label isn’t obvious to outsiders which is a hurdle for an event wanting to act as a vector for cycle tourism to its home roads. It’s no longer a pre-Giro race and the idea of a World Tour race used to give young riders opportunities – think Nordhagen, Withen Philipsen, Decomble – is interesting if you’re reading this blog but not a grab for the general public which is being treated to Pogačar right now. Also the course is very conservative as Stage 1 looks to have told us who will finish on the podium and to the point where the “innovation” this year, to use the organiser’s word, was that the final stage would be a normal road stage rather than a time trial, as in the six-day race has broken with the tradition of having two time trial stages.
It has been reported here (at the bottom of the world) that the funding for LIv is definitely pulled i.e. the players have been told.