Breakaway leagues, an ongoing story

logo-edmond-rothschild

A breakaway is a common term in cycle racing, used when riders escape from the bunch. Only now “breakaway” is taking on another meaning: an attempt by some to take the sport away from the UCI.

Cyclingnews.com reports of a breakaway league involving financial group Rothschild. I gather this was earlier reported in the excellent Rouleur Magazine but perhaps the distribution was a touch too exclusive and nobody picked up on it.

In addition to the report by Daniel Benson I can reveal the plans involved a full calendar of races including the Tour de France, several classics and stage races and that Garmin/Slipstream boss Jonathan Vaughters was involved. I understand that the Tour of California and the Tour Down Under were amongst the races willing to join. I gather the Amaury family had words with the Rothschild group to pour come cold water on the deals but that others are continuing to work on a potential deal to include ASO.

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Eddy Merckx’s shoes

Merckx shoes

All sports have champions from the past. Some have an undisputed “best ever” champion. Boxing has Muhammad Ali, soccer has Pelé. And cycling has Eddy Merckx although the story is never so simple, you could make arguments in favour of other riders, for example Fausto Coppi. But Merckx is a living legend and his name is valuable.

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Bringing the Tour to your city… or village

Revel départ

Regional newspapers are big in France, selling more than the national dailies. Open a local newspaper and you don’t have to turn many pages before you find the latest on the grape-picking harvest or minor traffic accidents. It reinforces the pleasant idea that not much happens in rural France, there just isn’t enough bad news to report.

For many places in France the passage of the Tour de France is the highlight of the year or even the decade. In a great piece Le Monde today reports on the importance of a stage visiting French towns. There are 36,000 mayors, from Paris down to tiny villages, and most of them would love to see the race visit their corner of France.

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UCI financial accounts published

UCI logo

Accounts are boring but often the money is not. I’ve done the hard work for you and here are some “highlights” of the UCI’s annual financial report.

First note it is from the year ending December 2010, some time ago but the wheels seem to turn slowly in Aigle and despite being approved by auditors in May, it took until September to agree to publish the accounts. Numbers are Swiss Francs (CHF) and today’s exchange rate is at the foot of this piece.

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On image rights

I’m more interested in the Worlds right now but with allegations in the Corriere della Sera involving the notion of undeclared revenues and money being transferred around Europe, here’s quick mention of the subject of image rights.

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Happy New Year

Eurobike logo

The year begins on 1 January for many but that’s not the case for plenty of people around the world, including the cycle trade. For many in the business of selling bikes, it’s 2012 already with the advent of new products and the trade shows Eurobike and Interbike. Maybe your local bike shop is having a sale to clear out “last year’s” models in time for fresh stock?

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Mergers and acquiescence

Radioshack Leopard

As I’ve written already, mergers are all the rage. All sorts of team combination are being talked about. Currently there don’t seem to be any rules regarding team mergers. Should we stand back and let teams deal unhindered or is it worth ruling on this?

This is subject where the answers are in short supply but let’s think through some of the issues at stake. Perhaps the most common meaning of the word “mergers” relates to the corporate use, whereby two companies are combined. It’s here that things are interesting because there are clear rules and laws to ensure corporate mergers and takeovers are handled smoothly. They’re probably not perfect but if two companies want to talk about a combo, then this is usually done in strict secrecy. Should the news leak then all parties involved usually have to give full details or at least some kind of holding statement. Sometimes the shares of the companies involved can be suspended.

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Arnaud Lagardère’s eyes aren’t on ASO

Back in April 2010 I covered rumours of a bid for the Tour de France, the suitor being Arnaud Lagardère. He’s the owner of Lagardère Group which owns a range of media assets in France. Primarily it does publishing, newsprint and as well as owning a stake in the country’s prime satellite broadcaster Canal+. But it’s got an extra division called Lagardère Unlimited that specialises in sports management and entrainment and it’s the growth of this part that made people wonder if Lagardère could bid for ASO, the sports management business that runs the Tour de France but also the French Open golf tournament and the Paris Marathon amongst other events.

But the bid never came. Yet Lagardère is still interested in the sports business. Only his stock is taking a battering in France thanks to a video of him with a new girlfriend, Jade Foret. She’s a Belgian model, aged 20.

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Merger mania

Merger / takeover

Companies usually merge to strengthen their position with the idea that 1+1 = something greater than two, perhaps because they can assume a dominant position in their market. Think of Exxon and Mobil joining to make the biggest oil company in the world or Air France and KLM joining forces to match European rivals like Lufthansa.

Now in cycling we are seeing mergers between teams only this time it’s for quite different reasons. Rather than growth or dominance, this looks more like a story of survival. More like half a team plus a few more riders hopefully makes up a whole team.

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Tour de France revenue sharing

Marie-Odile Amaury

The Tour de France is bigger than anything else in the sport, it’s the race everyone’s heard of. As such it’s in a monopoly position and able to dominate the sport.

At the same time others in the race are struggling. Garmin-Cervélo have taken four stages so far and held the yellow jersey but the team’s finances are always under review, the constant need to hunt for new sponsors whilst juggling a big wage will means a team manager’s job is often as much about fundraising as it is tactics.

The difference between a wealthy Tour de France and teams hunting for money is now leading squads to lobby for a share of the TV rights enjoyed by the Tour de France’s owners.

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