Kiwi star’s pay slashed
One of New Zealand’s top riders has been asked to take a hefty pay cut to help his WorldTour team survive the Covid-19 pandemic, but Patrick Bevin says the uncertainty won’t pull the brakes on his dream of winning a medal at the Olympic Games.
The CCC Team cyclist has returned home to New Zealand unsure when he will race again after his two biggest events of the year; the Giro d’Italia and Tokyo Olympics, were postponed and the rest of the calendar wiped clear until June.
With most of Bevin’s 2020 races centred around virus hotspots Italy and Spain, it remains to be seen whether he will compete again this year.
‘‘It was at the point where Italy was already shutdown but Spain was starting to shutdown and they were talking about closing borders, ports and airports and you had no idea how the situation looked in the day.’’ Bevin said. ‘‘So I just made a call to get out and protect my health above whatever was going on with the season.’’
Cycling has been hit particularly hard by the Covid-19 pandemic and Bevin’s team was one of the first to come out and publicly admit it has been left in a rather precarious position because of the impact it is having on on title sponsor CCC. As a result, all of its riders have had their salaries ‘‘heavily reduced’’ while the most of CCC’s support staff have been suspended.
‘‘The decision to make widespread cuts has been a painful process and one that we did not foresee even a matter of weeks ago,’’ team president Jim Ochowicz said.
‘‘The economic implications of the Covid-19 pandemic have had a drastic effect on business for our title sponsor CCC and like other professional cycling teams, we are now faced with a lack of cash flow due to unforeseen reductions in our sponsorships.’’
Bevin was unaware how significant his pay cut would be when approached by Stuff but acknowledged professional cycling had been severely wounded as teams rely heavily on sponsorship dollar to survive.
Mitchelton-Scott, whose roster includes Kiwis Jack Bauer, Dion Smith, Sam Bewley and Georgia Williams, have also announced they will be reducing rider salaries.
‘‘I don’t think our situation is unique,’’ Bevin said. ‘‘We’re kind of the first ones to show that kind of problem but it’s happened in the space of days.
‘‘I could see as I left Europe that it was going to be a messy few months but I think what’s taken everyone by surprise is how quickly it’s happened.
‘‘You look at airlines, you look at businesses . . . I didn’t think sport was immune but with a sponsorship model I didn’t expect it to be in a matter of days. The situation has got critical and that’s the big surprise.’’
2020 was set to be a big year for Bevin, who is now among the world’s top-10 time trial riders, after recovering from a heart scare that ruled him out of the
Tour Down Under and New Zealand championship. He had three TTs to look forward to at the Giro d’Italia before turning his attention to the Olympic Games, where he hoped to contend for a medal.
But despite the uncertainty surrounding his pro team, Bevin took solace in having the Olympics to work towards next year and said the lure of trying to win a medal will be fuelling his motivation over the next 12 months regardless of how much he’s getting paid.
‘‘The Olympics was a big part of my year and I’m incredibly glad they’ve moved it because it’s kind of taken that maybe-maybe not out of it.
‘‘I was an amateur for a lot longer than most of my contemporaries on the WorldTour, I turned pro really late, so I remember better than most what’s it’s like to do it for nothing. It’s going to have an impact no matter where you are but at the end of the day a goal like the Olympics transcends what goes on in the profession and what races come and go, what teams come and go.’’