Details of the One Cycling reform project remain scarce and the teams and race organisers involved are secretive about their ambitions but Cyclingnews understands that several WorldTour teams have pulled out of the project, convinced the numbers simply do not add up.
According to reports in early February, sports investor company SRJ Sports Investments, controlled by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) has emerged as a frontrunner to back the project and was ready to invest €250 million ($270 million).
A presentation and meetings were held in London, as the consulting firm EY pushed to finalise a deal and earn a significant fee. However, One Cycling is struggling to secure the minimum of ten teams needed as initial shareholders for the project to begin, with only eight teams said to have signed up after the London meeting with SRJ Sports Investments.
Visma-Lease a Bike, EF Education-EasyPost, Soudal Quick-Step, Ineos-Grenadiers, Lidl-Trek and Bora-Hansgrohe have long been part of the project, with Bahrain Victorious and another said to have joined them. Intermarché-Wanty have been listed as one of the teams involved but refused to comment when contacted by Cyclingnews.
The One Cycling project appears to have little consideration for women's racing despite some of the teams also having a women's team alongside their men's squad.
Several others signed initial non-disclosure agreements to see One Cycling's plans but quickly walked away, convinced the numbers do not add up. Now French newspaper L'Equipe, (like the Tour de France, controlled by the Amaury family) have revealed why some teams have doubts about the success of One Cycling.
L'Equipe suggested that several team managers were asked to "sign a commitment letter as a blank cheque, without telling them what this signature covered."
Other teams reportedly backed out after SRJ Sports Investments requested a €100 million return on their investment in the first year, with the teams obliged to make up for any shortfall. With teams usually spending 100% of their annual budget on rider salaries and costs, it would be unclear how they could cover any deficit.
L'Equipe suggested the deal with SRJ Sports Investments for the €250 million investment would be based on the teams ceding future image rights contracts but that was also given a lukewarm welcome. There was no information on how the One Cycling project would otherwise raise revenues. There have been suggestions that new races could be organised or roadside fans could be monetized by charging for access to key parts of major races, such as on mountain finishes and the Classics.
"Crazy business model if there is even one," one team manager, who did not want to be identified, told Cyclingnews.
"We were not interested from day one after the first meeting."
According to a recent report by Het Laatste Nieuws, Astana Qazaqstan, Movistar, Jayco AlUla and the French teams Groupama-FDJ, Arkea-B&B Hotels, Cofidis and Decathlon-AG2R are not involved as initial stakeholders in the One Cycling project. DSM-Firmenich-PostNL are also on that list but team manager Iwan Spekenbrink recently spoke of the need for reforms in professional cycling.
UAE Team Emirates are the only super team missing from the One Cycling project.
"We're monitoring the situation. At the moment we have a total neutral position," team CEO Andrea Agostini told Cyclingnews.
Tour de France organisers ASO have confirmed they will not be part of the project, with Giro d'Italia organisers RCS and the UCI preferring to sit on the fence.
UCI President David Lappartient has said he is open to reforms of the race calendar for 2026 when the UCI WorldTour team and race licences are next renewed. However, he has always demanded the UCI stay in control of the WorldTour, putting an end to any hope of a breakaway or super league project.
In his role as head of the French Olympic Committee, Lappartient stole a march on the One Cycling teams and organisers by travelling to Saudi Arabia to sign a deal with the Saudi Olympic & Paralympic Committee to strengthen the mutual collaboration.
One Cycling remains a project, an idea and a desire of several reading teams but without an official identity and business plan. The fans and riders have never been directly involved.
L'Equipe recalled how Plugge had suggested last October that professional cycling was a 'sleeping giant' that needed a new business plan. The French newspaper, perhaps taking a stance for ASO, concluded by suggesting that "the next few weeks will tell whether Richard Plugge and his acolytes really have the means to wake up the 'giant.'"
