Riding for survival

In all the confusion and fear of the early weeks of the coronavirus crisis, one alarming revelation – at least from a cycling fan’s point of view – was that several WorldTour teams might not survive.

‘Pro cycling managers are worried that the coronavirus pandemic could spell financial ruin for teams across the sport,’ read one report, ‘as major sponsorship contracts could be annulled or ignored by the unprecedented strain placed on major companies by the virus.’

When racing resumed, we were told, it could be with a seriously depleted peloton, with some teams having simply disappeared. Which ones? That was less clear, but Mitchelton-Scott, Bahrain-McLaren and Lotto-Soudal were among those who reportedly introduced pay cuts.

CCC confirmed that, whatever happened, they would pull out at the end of the year, after just 24 months as a WorldTour team. CCC, a manufacturer and retailer of shoes and bags in Poland, was in trouble before the pandemic with shops closing and mass redundancies. A cycling team must have seemed like an unnecessary indulgence.

‘Some team managers and other officials privately worried that as many as half of the WorldTour teams would collapse’

Other sponsors look vulnerable: Sunweb, a holiday company;