'We like it as it is' – Ciccone questions need for change in light of new cycling league plans

It seems like barely a week goes by within cycling at the moment without a major breaking story, and the past few days have proved no different, as plans for a new league leaked following the Tour de France presentation. This league would, in many ways be a ‘Champions League’ of road cycling, but despite being in the works for a long time, only five or six WorldTeams are currently said to be fully onboard.

As per reports from Reuters and Radio Cycling earlier this week, a new league would reduce the number of races in the schedule, have all races either begin or end on a Sunday, and have no overlapping races. For example, this would theoretically do away with the clash between Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico.

At the time of writing, reports say that five or six WorldTeams are on board with the proposals that have been pioneered by Richard Plugge – head of Jumbo-Visma and the association of pro teams (AIGCP) and his ‘One Cycling’ organisation, which appears akin to a lobbying group that will seek to make the sport more financially profitable to investors.

The UCI is said to support the proposals, which may see such a league come into effect from the 2026 campaign and dramatically reshape the WorldTour.

But speaking to GCN on the ground at the Tour de France Prudential Singapore Criterium, Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) questioned the need to alter the calendar in the first place, whilst Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) was another who pointed to the importance of acknowledging cycling’s rich history first and foremost.

"From my side, I don’t want to lose this feeling that we have with the sport. Why do we need to change something?” Ciccone questioned.

“It is always like this, and this is our sport, we like it as it is, and I think we need to keep the same history.”

Instead of the busy calendar being a burden, the Tour de France King of the Mountains winner views it as an opportunity for riders to tailor their seasons towards specific goals. It must be noted that, although Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico is one of the season’s more noticeable clashes, the races are often chosen by riders according to their later ambitions.

For those targeting the Giro d’Italia, Tirreno-Adriatico offers the perfect week-long stage race in preparation, whilst Paris-Nice marks the true start of many riders’ development towards the Tour de France. 

“I think for me, I really like the calendar as it is, because we have many races to choose from. If you want to do Paris-Nice, you can do Paris-Nice. If you want to do Tirreno-Adriatico, you can do Tirreno-Adriatico,” noted Ciccone.

“I think it is good like this because you can split everything depending on which main goal you have. I don’t know why they want to change it, honestly, but I don’t want to say anything about it because I don’t want to make some gaffe!”

Kuss: It goes both ways

Ciccone was wary of committing too many opinions to record before he had fully understood the plans for a mooted league, something he was wise to do given the heightened emotions that surround this particular plan to revolutionise the sport.

There have been plenty of critics of the proposal within days of its leak – not least because the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF) is rumoured to bankroll the league – but also given the way in which such a league may infringe on cycling’s traditional calendar. The fear is that smaller races would be seen as unnecessary and subsequently face cancellation, something which Kuss acknowledged may be an issue.

“I think it goes both ways, I think it is exciting and good for the sport that it modernises in a way, or become more franchised,” Kuss began.

“But at the same time, cycling is very nuanced and there is a lot of history, there are a lot of smaller races and it’s hard to have it both, where you have a big calendar with all these historic races - or smaller races - but you also have to keep the fan engagement and keep everything concise.”

Riders not well clued up about the proposals thus far

Both riders' hesitancy to take a side on the matter, so to speak, came not least from a lack of understanding of the situation in general. Although the news has been hitting headlines in the past few days, the responses from Ciccone and Kuss make it abundantly clear that knowledge on the matter is thin from within the peloton.

“I have never heard anything about it, I know nothing about it,” said Ciccone, before asking, “what does it mean?”

Although he appeared more clued up about the reports, Kuss confirmed that he had enjoyed no conversations with the team about the proposals as of yet.

“The first I read about it was in the news.”

This is despite his team boss Plugge being the driving force behind the proposals.