Marketing resembles a patchwork quilt – yet cycling resists reforms

Summer 2024 in a hotel in the Alps. Jonathan Vaughters is under pressure. Vaughters is the manager of the EF Education-Easy Post cycling team and has a problem: His team is missing a stage win at the Tour de France. Especially in the mountains, they aren't living up to expectations. A member of the management team of main sponsor EF Education vents his anger in a meeting and gives the team manager a dressing down.

The sponsor is openly expressing its dissatisfaction and bluntly threatening personnel measures. After all, it signed captain Richard Carapaz , the 2021 Olympic champion and winner of the 2019 Giro d'Italia, for a large sum of money. If the team fails to achieve success, employees could lose their jobs.

This scene is from the third season of the Netflix series "Unchained." The filmmakers followed teams and riders during the last three editions of the Tour de France and produced three seasons of eight episodes each. The series offers insights into the inner workings of the peloton during the most important race of the year – a treat for cycling fans.

But "Unchained" missed its main goal: Netflix wanted to gain more subscribers in France and bring cycling to a new audience. The viewing figures were so disappointing that the streaming service decided not to film further during the current Tour . The third season will be the last. Netflix saves the approximately €8 million production costs per season.

There have been a number of sports documentaries like "Unchained" recently. The most successful was "Drive to Survive" from Formula 1. Thanks to the series, the premier class of motorsport has managed to attract a younger, and especially female, audience. They now watch not only the Netflix series but also the races.

The narratives of "Unchained" and "Drive to Survive" are similar. They're about duels, team dynamics, and emotions—from joy to pain to frustration. But why hasn't cycling received the same attention?

Christian Lang, a professor of sports marketing at the University of St. Gallen, says: "Formula 1 offers a perfect template for a documentary. There are clearly defined teams, driver duels, and a comprehensible season structure." Cycling, on the other hand, is fragmented. There are many different races: classics and other one-day races, as well as major and minor tours. There are also changing formats: mountain stages, sprint stages, time trials. And different specialists for each format. Unlike Formula 1, there is no season-long duel for a major title.

"The tactics and competitions are complex for a layperson. This makes it difficult to find a central narrative," says Lang. Furthermore, the races are too lengthy for live TV. "Sports that lend themselves well to short, condensed stories have an advantage in today's media world," says Lang.

Netflix attempted to focus on the duel between Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar for the Tour de France victory. However, due to differing season schedules, the two greats almost only meet at the Tour de France. Not enough to create a permanent rivalry.

However, according to Lang, the bigger problem lies in marketing. He says: "'Unchained' is technically well-made. But cycling lacks a system that generates growth through storytelling." There is no central organization that strategically intervenes in marketing. While Liberty Media controls everything in Formula 1—from the race calendar and TV rights to the allocation of venues—cycling resembles a patchwork.

The largest player is the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO). This French family-owned company dominates the market with the Tour de France, the Vuelta, and classics like Paris–Roubaix and Liège–Bastogne–Liège. The Giro d'Italia and other Italian races belong to RCS Sport, while Belgian races like the Tour of Flanders have other organizers. In addition, there is the UCI, the world cycling governing body, which organizes annual world championships. Uniform marketing? None.

Ralph Denk is team manager for the German team Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe. He is considered an innovative mind in the cycling scene. In a media roundtable a few weeks before the start of the Tour, he commented on the cancellation of the Netflix series: "I think it's a shame. The money has to come from somewhere, but for that, we need a larger reach." Unlike in Formula 1, cycling teams do not share in the profits of the organizers of major races.

The teams are therefore almost entirely dependent on sponsors. As with EF Education-Easy Post, they put pressure on them when top results aren't forthcoming. The teams don't publish specific figures. The "Gazzetta dello Sport" estimates that the 18 World Tour teams have a total budget of €570 million per year, an average of €32 million per team. About 95 percent of this comes from sponsors.

Whether this will change soon remains questionable. Cycling is steeped in tradition and often resistant to reform. This makes sense for the ASO: Industry insiders estimate that it makes 70 million euros in profit annually from the Tour de France. The teams come away empty-handed, but they rely on the Tour's stage.

Sports marketing expert Lang says: "Change often means a loss of power for the established players." Cycling needs bold decision-makers and vision to break the deadlock. But the ASO has little interest in reform, and the UCI has also shown little cooperation.

The rigorous nature of the world governing body's blocking of innovation became apparent a few weeks ago. In a cryptic press release, the UCI blocked the initiative of eight World Tour teams to establish a centrally marketed league and structure the race calendar. The world governing body argued that the league was "sportingly incoherent" and violated "governance rules." It left open what this meant specifically.

The "One Cycling" project was to be largely financed by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund (PIF), reportedly with 250 million euros. Among the participating teams are top teams such as Visma-Lease a Bike and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe. The organizer of the Tour of Flanders is also involved. The plan is to combine established and new races, complemented by high-level competitions outside of Europe.

Sports marketing expert Lang says: "A league system with guaranteed starting places and a share of TV revenue could be the solution." At the end of 2025, the World Tour licenses will be reassigned and the cycling calendar reorganized. The organizers of the "One Cycling League" hoped the project would launch next year. The UCI has prevented this. For now.

Discontent has been spreading among renowned teams, and not just since the recent confrontation with the UCI. Team manager Denk told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that a mix of tradition and revolution is needed. He added: "We need to consider how we can make cycling easier for fans." Denk calls for a streamlined calendar, a transparent rider ranking, and for the best to race against the best more often.

To break the era of chronic losses, cycling needs a revolution.

An article from the « NZZ am Sonntag »