The 2026 Tour de France draws near, where Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard will face off; whilst the likes of Paul Seixas and Remco Evenepoel will also be going all out in pursuit of the World Champion’s level. UAE Team Emirates – XRG may still have the strongest collective in France, however Pogacar’s domestiques are one by one being signed by rival teams.
Professional cycling is a growing sport and in the last few years, the budget has been growing amongst a few teams. UAE Team Emirates – XRG cemented itself as the ‘top dog’ over the past few years. But is that run coming to an end?
Money means power and leverage. This applies to any sport and cycling is no exception. Even if some teams have better financial management or have a more efficient way of managing their budget, it is hard to counter the teams that have the larget budgets in cycling simply because they have a greater ability to sign the riders they want, and believe to be the best.
Netcompany INEOS in the 2010’s had a notable budget of around €50 million, something which in that decade put it above the rest and allowed it to not only have great leaders such as Chris Froome, Bradley Wiggins, Geraint Thomas and more; but also begin a very notable trend of signing many of the world’s best climbers and classics specialists to surround them.
Take the 2017 Tour de France, where defending champion had the following riders as domestiques: Former World Champion Michal Kwiatkowski; former time trial World Champion Vasil Kiryienka; Geraint Thomas who would win the Tour de following year; Mikel Landa on the prime of his career; Paris-Nice winner Sergio Henao; and veteran top domestiques such as Mikel Nieve, Luke Rowe and Christian Knees. For Team Sky the equation is not complicated: Flood the team with money, sign the best riders for every terrain and build a fortress around Froome.
It is a working tactic, so with no surprise, other sponsors and states invested big amounts of money to try and replicate what Sky has done successfully. The mission of becoming a Tour de France-dominating team, for a few dozen million euros a year, was an attractive offer for many big companies
Be the first to comment