What is and who is behind One Cycling

The Super Cycling League project is gaining strength again after David Lappartient, president of the UCI, confirmed that the cycling's governing body is involved in negotiations to define the One Cycling project.

UCI Joins the One Cycling Super League Project

Up to now, the UCI had remained discreetly in the background regarding One Cycling, the cycling Super League project in which teams seek to reduce the power of major organizers in favor of a more equitable distribution of profits and audiovisual rights, which are currently almost entirely controlled by RCS, ASO, Unipublic, or Flanders Classics.

One Cycling has been a topic of discussion for some time now, ever since its main promoter, Visma-Lease a Bike's general manager, Richard Plugge, put the idea on the table. Now, things seem to be moving forward seriously, and the first step has been the registration of a company in the United Kingdom that will be responsible for One Cycling.

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As rumored from the beginning, several teams are supporting the One Cycling project: Visma-Lease a Bike, Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, INEOS Grenadiers, Lidl-Trek, EF Education-EasyPost, Soudal-QuickStep, and Picnic-PostNL. On the other hand, teams like Bahrain-Victorious, XDS-Astana, and Movistar have also joined the negotiations, while the rest of the squads remain in the background.

But what will One Cycling really consist of? The project is still being outlined, however, Ralph Denk, director of Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, gave some hints explaining that the idea is to get the best cyclists to compete against each other more often.

All this with races designed to seek entertainment and attract the public, taking as an example what Flanders Classics does in the Tour of Flanders, with a final circuit where spectators can see the cyclists three times and VIP areas where they can follow the race in luxury.

Despite showing support for the project, David Lappartient has been clear about it "We do not want a private league" so it is expected that the competitions integrated into One Cycling will coexist with the current World Tour races.

Regarding the project's financing, it seems to be confirmed that the Saudi investment fund SRJ Sports Investments will be in charge of providing the estimated 270 million needed to start One Cycling.

Although nothing is defined yet, Richard Plugge seems to have a clear vision, and his intention is to see the project confirmed before March 20, the date when the next IOC president is elected, which could be David Lappartient. Now that the UCI president views the One Cycling project favorably, Plugge seeks to finalize it with his support before having to depend on whoever replaces Lappartient if he ends up leading the IOC.

However, the UCI's timing does not seem to be the same, and the cycling's governing body is cautious. They are aware that the economic model of cycling can be greatly improved, but they do not want a war to break out between teams and organizers with uncertain consequences.
In any case, after several months without news on the subject, it seems that the Super Cycling League is moving forward, and some rumors even suggest that SRJ Sports Investments could make their investment public imminently.