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The news of Cannondale-Drapac prompts us to consider how it came to be that around 100 people are wondering about their employment…
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Let’s say you wanted to own a pro cycling team and you had some great investors who were passionate about the sport. They opted to back you and said, “Make your dream a reality.”
With that investment you recruit riders and staff and build something from scratch and turn it into an entity that has respect in the peloton and generates sufficient publicity to lure in additional revenue. Sponsors appear and duly sign up to be part of the exciting adventure.
You achieve lofty goals, maintain a reputation for honesty and integrity – perhaps even a dose of humility at times.
You’re able to spark a fire in the sodden quagmire of what pro cycling had become.
Despite scandal and confessions relating to ill-gotten gains, cheating, bullying, unscrupulous dealings and a generally rank atmosphere, there is something alluring about the proposition of what you’re undertaking. It inspires people and they opt to follow the progress, some even start cheering for you and wishing you and your team success.
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Fans… good for cooling, good for funding.
Photo: Rob Arnold
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Through the opening stanza of this venture, investment comes and investment goes but you manage it as you should: as though it’s a business and there are workers to pay and shareholders to satisfy. That’s how it is and you manage accordingly. There is the usual stress and strain, and at this level it can get intense but you persist because it’s working.
It progresses rapidly and before long you have achieved things you once considered would represent the ultimate but that just serves as inspiration to shift you goals.
It’s human instinct to try and improve. There’s little to admire about complacency. Good can become better…!
Through it all, you get tired from the effort. This too is only natural. Eventually you start wondering why you bothered because the requirements involved in maintaining the team have become overwhelming. There are riders who expect to receive what is written in their contract and sponsors who want a return on their investment.
Pro cycling is built on publicity and success is one way of obtaining this requisite element. But winning bike races at the highest level isn’t easy.
But you push on and, after 10 years in the top-tier of your sport, you eventually realise that the constant demand for keeping things moving is… well, it’s demanding.
One day, when some news arrives about one source of income, you feel that you are forced to make a statement that it’s all over; that all that you’ve built will stop.
You don’t want to do that. You just want to enjoy some spoils of success – what could become the final year of the venture has been a good one. There have been conquests and celebrations: second place in the Tour de France, it’s a result to be proud of.
It appeals to the masses and now there’s an appeal to the masses. Support this team: it’s good, it needs funding.
There are contributors to the success of your venture – cyclists, staff, fans – many of them never as enthused about cycling, and without the funding, it cannot go on.
By now you’ve got fans and sponsors and investment and staff. You’ve got the foundations of exactly what you set out to achieve: to become a team that people can be proud of. There are personalities and there’s performance. There are partners who still believe in the original dream and love being part of the journey. There is respect and admiration and there’s momentum.
But the the costs cannot be met. There are commitments that need to be fulfilled. Has the dream become a nightmare?
No, because you wanted to own a pro cycling team. And the original ambition remains: to inspire people to ride their bikes.
Let’s hope the dream becomes real, not a nightmare.
– By Rob Arnold
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