Two months after details of a proposed — and potentially lucrative — new pro cycling league emerged, it appears that the One Cycling project is on hold.
In late October The Guardian reported that Visma-Lease a Bike manager Richard Plugge and Soudal Quick-Step majority owner Zdenek Bakala were a major part of the plans, with Ineos Grenadiers and EF Education-EasyPost said to be amongst other teams said to be interested.
Work has continued since then in the background, but according to Plugge, things have ground to a halt, for now at least.
“I can’t say much about it, because not much is happening there politically at the moment,” he told the Dutch website Wielerflits this week. “And unfortunately that has been at a standstill for a while.”
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Plugge gave no further details about the reasons behind the stall, nor indeed if or when things could recommence.
However, he did provide new details on the overall idea behind the project.
“It’s not called One Cycling for nothing,” he said. “We want to include everyone in this. It is not a breakaway league or elite club, which I have read here or there.
“But there is a big problem in the future for cycling. For this we have to look outside sports,” he said. “Our opponents are not organizers or other teams, at the negotiating table. That’s football, Formula 1 and NFL, you name it. Plus all the government interventions here and there in various countries, which puts road cycling under considerable pressure.
“To tackle these problems, I think we as teams and race organizers must work together for the future.”
According to the initial Guardian story in October, the new structure would be similar in some ways to soccer’s Champions League, and could be backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF).
That fund is behind the controversial Liv Golf series, which saw some big names from the PGA Tour sign up after receiving huge amounts of money.
The project could see the top teams going head to head across a limited number of prestige events, something Plugge described to the Guardian.
“If we have a really strong league, with fewer races, really strong and understandable, then I think the value for everybody will go up,” Plugge said.
Tour de France organizers ASO are reportedly resistant to the idea.
Plans frozen but 2026 launch date suggested as desired timeframe
Plugge is also the chairman of the AIGCP, an organization representing the interests of professional teams.
Plugge told Wielerflits that his AIGCP role fits in with the One Cycling aims, namely a more financially secure sport.
“The most important thing for me has always been to do it together,” Plugge said. “Let’s say that in 10 years we still want to ride Paris-Nice and the Tour of Catalonia, maybe even add new races. We as teams cannot run races without organizers. But they cannot organize the other way around if we don’t ride.”
The most notable takeaway from 48hrs in Paris for me was how the biggest talking point was a little thing called One Cycling. Now reports are out about a league – the two are linked. Things are developing quickly. Some teams are pretty miffed off. Yet again no cohesion in cycling
— Chris Marshall-Bell (@cmbell310) October 26, 2023
“I see that as a whole, so we are looking for unity. And that’s why [it is called] One Cycling,” Plugge said. “It would be great if we could achieve that for the next WorldTour cycle in 2026.”
For now, though, it appears any major change to the current system is in limbo.