The column: Let’s use this time to consider the future we want for cycling

The column: Let’s use this time to consider the future we want for cycling

Rather than dwelling on what we’re missing, the races that have been cancelled, let’s look forward, and imagine what cycling could one day be, once all this is over

Coronavirus Covid19 Grand Tours Magnificent 7 Racing The Column Tour de France

The Tour de France will not happen this year. It may not be official but that doesn’t make it any less factual. It might sound like we’re abandoning hope, there are plenty of reasons why, when that official announcement does come, it would be only correct for the UCI to also call the cancellation of the rest of the 2020 cycling season. 


While we do not know any better than anyone else how this crisis will play out, the most significant sporting event on the calendar, the Olympics, has already been postponed. While a few minor or domestic sporting events might conceivably be held behind closed doors, cycling has no doors to close. That puts any possible resumption of the season beyond the date at which that would have originally taken place. That means a month, at most, for something – or everything – to happen. What then would it be?


Then there would be too many dangling questions, too many conflicts, between governments, organisers, teams, riders, media, fans, for the ducks to fall into line. 


Why should, by sheer coincidence of calendar, Il Lombardia go ahead when De Ronde and Milan-Sanremo couldn’t? Equally, if they were to reschedule the Tour of Flanders for late season, why should those late season races suffer, because of their place in the hierarchy?

Philippe Gilbert

From an athletic point of view, every country is going to relax its rules on isolation and social distancing at different times, meaning some riders will be able to get out and train sooner than others.


Moreover the countries themselves will be in mourning. With no end in sight, two of cycling’s great nations, Spain and Italy, are among the hardest hit. Any northern European town or city or village visited by any kind of race will have lost people. Any number of riders themselves will have as well.


Even if none of those things were true, the logistics of organising anything else would be, at this stage, nigh impossible. To employ cycling’s fondest phrase, we’re all just taking it day by day, aren’t we? 


So it won’t happen. We know it won’t. And yet…


What if it were possible? What if, by some miracle, this virus could be near as dammit wiped off the face of the earth before the summer is out? What if, then, the umpteen different stakeholders could somehow come together and find a way to create, as Ned Boulting talked about on last week’s podcast, “a two or three week festival of cycling, which nods to the territory of Italy, Spain and France”?


It could, he suggests, incorporate parts of the Monuments missed, maybe the Worlds, obviously every Grand Tour. It could serve as a celebration of the whole sport. It would give every rider, women and men, from one-day heroes to super-domestiques, a chance to play their part.

Vuelta A Espana

It’s a beautiful, positive idea. Remove the odds of it actually happening from the equation and it’s still a worthwhile thought experiment to conduct. Doing so might even lead us to envisage a new shape for professional cycling, free from the trappings of “we’ve always done it this way”, whenever the sport does finally resume. 


Let’s treat this as year zero. An opportunity to solve some or all of those long-standing, existential problems – from the incoherent season-long narrative, to inequality of the sexes, to the preposterous, precarious business model – that have held cycling back for so long. Whenever heads are clear enough to do so, we should get them together, set aside differences, agendas and interests and find a way forward for the good of the sport. 


Flattening the curve: How the cycling world is doing its bit


Brainstorm. Spitball ideas. Get down to some blue sky thinking (but stay inside.) There are no stupid suggestions.


We should think about these things, because if not now, when? We should think about these things because if the crisis is teaching us anything, it is that anything is possible. We should think about these things because hope springs eternal. We should think about these things because this too shall pass. 

 

The post The column: Let’s use this time to consider the future we want for cycling appeared first on The world's finest cycling magazine.

Coronavirus Covid19 Grand Tours Magnificent 7 Racing The Column Tour de France

READ MORE

Domination and revelations: The Dauphiné showed us more than just Tadej Pogačar's continued superiority

Domination and revelations: The Dauphiné showed us more than just Tadej Pogačar's continued superiority

The final showdown before the Tour de France; what exactly did we learn from eight days at the Critérium du Dauphiné?

Leer más
Final Tour de France podium 2024

Tour de France favourites 2025: who will win the yellow jersey?

A look at who the bookmakers are backing to win the general classification at this year's Tour

Leer más
Julius Johansen

The incredible comeback story of Tadej Pogačar’s new teammate after WorldTour rejection

He won a world road race title before Tadej Pogačar, but the blonde-haired Dane had to suffer a painful rejection before finally reaching the top

Leer más
First blood in the mountains: What does Pogačar's crushing Dauphiné stage win tell us about the Tour?

First blood in the mountains: What does Pogačar's crushing Dauphiné stage win tell us about the Tour?

Time trial gains for Jonas Vingegaard, first mountain domination for Tadej Pogačar. Are we set for a close-fought Tour de France?

Leer más
Joao Almeida

Tour de Suisse 2025 preview: Almeida the man to beat?

With the big hitters fighting it out in the Critérium du Dauphiné, there's a golden opportunity for a WorldTour victory at the Tour de Suisse

Leer más
Tiffany Cromwell

My other life as a graphic designer, by Tiffany Cromwell

Veteran of the women’s peloton since 2010, Canyon//SRAM zondacrypto’s Tiffany Cromwell spends most of her downtime drawing and creating, including a number of Formula One...

Leer más

READ RIDE REPEAT

JOIN ROULEUR TODAY

Get closer to the sport than ever before.

Enjoy a digital subscription to Rouleur for just £4 per month and get access to our award-winning magazines.

SUBSCRIBE