The One Cycling project is finally expected to be announced in the next few weeks, but after being initially dubbed a 'breakaway league' and grand plans to create new innovative races, One Cycling is likely to fall under UCI regulations and the control of UCI President David Lappartient.
Saudi Arabian SURJ Sports Investment fund is expected to invest $300 million in a new company that will have many of the leading teams as shareholders, along with Belgian race organiser Flanders Classics and possibly others. Tour de France organisers ASO have always said they are against the creation of One Cycling.
Information on the One Cycling project has been kept under wraps after teams and race organisers signed legally binding non-disclosure agreements. However, the teams are now bullish that a launch is imminent.
SURJ chief executive Danny Townsend told SportsPro in December said Saudi Arabian investments in new sports would be announced "in the next couple of months."
"We’ve been working on some of the deals that we’re close to closing for over 12 months now. We’re really excited by the ones that we’re very close to announcing, and I think once we announce them, the market will see that they are transformational for the sports we’re investing in."
The Escape Collective reported that One Cycling could launch in a matter of weeks and Cyclingnews has heard similar information from several sources. A source told Escape Collective that Townsend’s comments “correlates with everything that’s going on."
This week SURJ announced a strategic partnership with Enfield Investment Partners following the US investment firm's launch of a $4 billion global sports asset fund. SURJ is also reported to be on the verge of making a $1 billion investment into the Dazn sports streaming platform. Dazn will broadcast the troubled FIFA Club World Cup for free this summer, while Saudi Arabia was named as the host of the 2034 FIFA World Cup.
One Cycling's initial plans involved creating new races and shaking up the precarious business model of professional cycling. Now One Cycling is expected to work with selected existing race organisers to try to monetize cycling fans in new and different ways.
These could include more circuit finishes at races and so VIP areas that charge fans to watch the action in the best points of the races while offering food and drink. Flanders Classics does this at its biggest races and the Cyclocross World Cup.
Cyclingnews understands that the long-term goals of One Cycling could even include a salary cap and a kind of US sports 'draft system for the best young rider and payments to development teams.
Digital technology and modern marketing techniques would be harnessed to monetize event rights, digital platforms, betting, gamification, merchandising and fan membership.
The One Cycling teams could agree to send their best riders to their partner races but this could undermine the WorldTour calendar. The race calendar is set to be shaken up anyway as part of wider reforms for the next three-year WorldTour cycle.
Visma-Lease a Bike, EF Education-EasyPost, Soudal-Quickstep, Ineos Grenadiers, Lidl-Trek and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe have long been part of the project, with Bahrain Victorious, Movistar and other teams said to have joined them. Jayco-Alulla and the leading French teams have apparently opted out of the project, while UAE Team Emirates have remained equi-distant, understanding the importance of good relationships with the UCI and ASO.
One source told Cyclingnews that at least 13 major men's WorldTour teams plus a number of women's teams are ready to become shareholders in One Cycling, with initial business plans for three and six years. Several team managers and Flanders Classics CEO Tomas Van Den Spiegel are said to be leading the project.
One Cycling started as a possible breakaway league but has gradually evolved into a UCI-approved plan.
"The UCI wants to step up as do several major race organisers," a source told Cyclingnews.
"We know we can't immediately turn cycling into the NBA but we can take a step up in three years and then in six years reach a final objective."
Visma-Lease a Bike team manager Richard Pugge, who was one of the original creators of the One Cycling project, suggested that Lappartient is ready to give One Cycling the green light as he seeks vital votes to become the next International Olympic Committee president.
A more united sport, boosted by $300 million from Saudi Arabia could be the Frenchman's legacy.
Lappartient was at the start of the Women's Tour Down Under in Australia on Friday and spoke to the media, including Cyclingnews, about One Cycling.
"There are ongoing discussions with various stakeholders, not the full agreement, of course, but for us, there are some red lines,” Lappartient made clear.
"The red line is that we don’t want to have a breakaway league, we don’t want to have a private league, and we want to make sure that we respect races like the Tour Down Under that are here for years.
"We know that the economic model of cycling can be improved. We know that the power of cycling can be bigger than this but we also want the discussions to be under the umbrella of the UCI.
“I've met various stakeholders. They are not in full agreement, as you may know, but we agreed at the last WorldTour seminar (in November 2024) that we have to sit all together and to find the best way to do this. We don’t want races to pay three or four times more, that’s what’s key for us.
"The discussions must be with teams, riders, organizers, under the umbrella of the UCI. But we are not, at the date of today, at the point of an agreement."
