Pro Cycling Teams in General

In the big pro sports most familiar to U.S. sports fans–football, baseball, basketball, and hockey–the teams are closely-linked with particular cities. These sports need a home venue–stadium, ball park or arena–which is often financed in partnership with the city by way of tax incentives or even shared building costs. Another key financial element is the sale of naming rights for the facility. A big company attaches its name to the stadium to reap the advertizing benefit. The ownership of the team may be held by a wealthy family or business. Occasionally, a team moves when the owners sell out, and a new city and sponsor build a new, bigger, fancier venue. But most of the teams stay in place for decades.

In these sports, the players are "owned" by the teams. There are a number of "minor leagues" where new talent is developed–high schools, colleges, and the actual minor leagues. Each major league has a draft where the weakest teams pick first, to acquire the best new talent. This is intended to move the leagues toward parity. But with trades, inter-team purchases and free agency, the best talent tends to gravitate to the richest teams. So, the leagues impose caps on player compensation or other restrictions on player mobility to push back toward parity. It’s an imperfect system, but the fans understand it more or less.

With pro cycling, the team dynamics are much more fluid. There is no single venue for each team. In fact there is no team-specific venue at all. So, the teams are not closely tied to any particular city. Consequently, there is no revenue from spectator admissions, local TV/radio contracts, parking or concessions. The primary source of revenue is advertising. Therefore, most of the pro cycling teams are sponsored by companies that are motivated by the advertizing value of the name recognition.

Example of non-paying spectators.  2010 Tour of Utah, Park City Criterium.


The team might be "owned" by a manager or management group that assembles a core of coaches, trainers and perhaps some key riders; and then that "owner" negotiates with sponsoring companies for contractual naming or other advertising rights. In exchange, the team receives a budget from the sponsors to hire riders and run the team as it competes all over the world. A "super team" might have a budget from its sponsors of $25 million or more.

A few teams are assembled by a national or regional sports body with the view of promoting the sport in that country or region. In this case, some of the budget comes from public funds. But even there, corporate sponsorships play a big role.

Some of the corporate sponsorship contracts may only run for a year, and the major naming contracts may only run for as little as five years. Sponsors might pull out early, or decline to renew, for a variety of reasons, including business setbacks, poor performance by the cycling team, or bad publicity from the cyclists. In this latter category, drug and doping scandals are the kiss of death. In fact, some teams have been banned by the sport’s governing body (UCI) because of such scandals, even if the sponsors might have been willing to continue. The point is, the life expectancy of a pro cycling team is much more tenuous than that of a pro team in those other sports.

Even when the teams do not die, they morph from one year to the next. The same management group may continue from year to year, but with a different mix of sponsors each season. Thus, the name may change by adding or dropping a sponsor’s name. Or the group may emerge in the new season under a completely different name.

In 2011, Team RadioShack was a U.S. team, and Léopard-Trek was a Luxembourg team. (Each team had riders from other countries, but the team nationality reflected the origin of the team’s management group and/or primary sponsors.) In 2012, the U.S. Team RadioShack no longer exists, and the Luxembourg team is now called RadioShack-Nissan. (Trek is still a major sponsor, so the initials are RNT.) The surviving Luxembourg team still has the same management group (Léopard) and most of its riders from the 2011 TDF, but it also has five of the 2011 RadioShack riders, as well as RadioShack’s former head coach. The rest of the RadioShack riders, including some of its biggest stars are now on other teams.

Next post, a look at the teams selected to ride the 2012 Tour de France, with some comparisons to the 2011 lineup.

Levi Leipheimer, Tour of Utah 2010.  Some UCI rule prevented him from riding for Team RadioShack in this race, so he rode as an independent under the sponsorship of Mellow Johnny's (his RadioShack teammate Lance Armstrong's bicycle shop).  Levi did not follow his RadioShack coach and teammates to the Luxembourg team for 2012.  Instead, he is riding for Omega Pharma - Quickstep.  This is his ninth pro cycling team (not counting Mellow Johnny's) in his 15-year pro career.