IF THE CAP FITS, WEAR IT
It's time for professional cycling to look at salary caps to level the playing ield
W hen Alberto Contador talks, people listen, and rightly so. He has a different perspective of life compared to other athletes. His life experience has included going from being in hospital with a cerebral cavernoma with those around him wondering if he’d recover, to winning every grand tour. The most entertaining and best stage racer of his generation retires with an admiring fan base, enthralled not only by his racing style but also, despite the riches his successes have brought, humbleness and respect for others.
So when he suggests a salary cap would maintain fairer competition in the sport, you know that it isn’t sour grapes. It’s because he sees there’s a problem with funding in cycling. The issue of money has been long disputed. However, it was put into the spotlight more than ever this year when Cannondale-Drapac announced its impending demise during the Vuelta, the same race at which Sky unveiled their mighty F1-inspired mobile race hub. The haves and havenots were beautifully illustrated in one fell swoop.
Jonathan Vaughters, Cannondale’s CEO, has been saying for years that teams relying on sponsorship is unsustainable. That it was his team having a funding crisis made the sentiment all the more apparent.
When Bernard Tapie came along in the 1980s and bought the services of Bernard Hinault and Greg LeMond for La Vie Claire, there was outcry over the sums involved. I remember abuse from the side of the road at the beginning of the year that we, the riders, were now grossly overpaid. Fast forward from there to a rainy race in Belgium later that year. At two-thirds distance, the route goes slightly uphill and a sidewind has everyone pinned in the gutter. Above the road to the right there’s a muddy field full of cows and their inevitable by-products. Those substances have washed off the field and mixed with the rain into a filthy stream. As we crest the top, even the peloton’s best paid star is a miserable brown splattered mess and then there’s the cry from a lone spectator: “Trop payé!” You’re paid too much.
Greg shakes his head. Then he says the immortal words, “I’m not getting paid enough to do this sh*t”
In the context of global sport, he wasn’t paid enough. However, to the guy working in a factory banging out widgets day after day we possibly looked like we were. There’s no easy answer to what a pro is worth. That depends on the rider, how successful they are and what they bring to the team, the sponsor and the sport. I’m glad to see that the teams have expanded, with better facilities, more staff, more professionalism and a much better overall level of remuneration. How that is distributed among the team depends on many factors which may or may not influence who gets what. Fair doesn’t come into it.
Some teams and sponsors take the collective view, in which the individual is sacrificed in pursuit of an overall achievement. Others chase the result and that’s all that matters. Meanwhile, there are those who love the romance, the history and the passion and seek a more personal engagement with the public. Thankfully the sport has existed with all those viewpoints being valid and they all give a return on investment that sponsors find attractive. The sums involved may be substantial nowadays but the reach and impact is pretty darn good.
The suggestion that the big budgets are destroying the entertainment value by controlling everything isn’t new. F1 and football suffer the same cries but when people pay for the best talent then they expect the best in return. It’s human nature.
It’ll be interesting to see if Alberto Contador continues to have the same impact in retirement as he had as a rider. Hopefully people will listen and use his intelligence constructively to take some kind of step forward. That would be a start.