Cycling’s success gap keeps growing
There was a very clear divide between the successful teams at the 2021 Tour de France and the also-rans. The wins were concentrated in a small group of outfits. In recent history, there tend to be between 10 and 12 teams who win stages; however this year only eight teams did so. Four teams won 15 of the stages between them, leaving slim pickings for the rest of the field. And with Tadej Pogacar winning the yellow, white and KoM jerseys for UAE Emirates, Mark Cavendish of DQS taking green, Jumbo-Visma’s Jonas Vingegaard coming second overall and Bahrain winning the teams prize, these teams also hogged the Paris podium.
At the other end of the scale, there were several teams who spent a long three weeks travelling around France and racing for little reward. Qhubeka-NextHash, TotalEnergies and Intermarché-Wanty didn’t manage a single stage top three between them; Qhubeka’s best result on a stage was 10th. Several other teams significantly underachieved - DSM were the team of the 2020 Tour, winning three stages, but a single third place was as good as it got this year. EF Education-Nippo sacrificed going for stage wins in favour of defending Rigoberto Urán’s GC position - the Colombian was in second overall going into the final duet of Pyrenean stages, but faltered badly on both days, dropping to 10th, still a decent result but well down on his previous best of second overall. By the time the team realised that their GC challenge had more or less fizzled out, it was too late to change tack. BikeExchange and Movistar had similarly invisible Tours - Enric Mas did hang in for sixth overall for the Spanish team, but he’d done so by being a worthy stayer rather than attacking to gain time.
The gap between the cycling haves and have-nots is growing ever wider, and it doesn’t just manifest itself at the Tour de France. There are seven WorldTour teams who have won 19 or more races so far this year: DQS, who lead on 37 wins, plus Ineos, Jumbo-Visma, Bora-Hansgrohe, UAE Emirates, Bahrain Victorious and Groupama-FDJ. With the exception of the French team and Ineos Grenadiers, these were the teams that divided up most of the spoils at the Tour between them. After Groupama-FDJ, with 19 wins,
there is a big drop to Movistar, who are next with 13 2021 victories. At the bottom, DSM have won one single race all year, Intermarché-Wanty have won two, and QhubekaNextHash four. Is it a coincidence that these last three teams were also the three least successful WorldTour teams at the Tour de France, comparable only to ProTourlevel TotalEnergies?
And the big races are being won by few teams. Ineos, Jumbo-Visma and UAE Emirates have won all the grand tours going back to the 2019 Tour between them - seven races.
The gap between the cycling haves and have-nots is growing ever wider, and not just at the Tour
The question is, does it matter if only a few teams are sharing most of the success between them? It’s a normal state of affairs in most other sports, and cycling itself has always had successful and rich teams dominating, whether La Vie Claire or Renault in the 1980s, ONCE in the 1990s, US Postal in the 2000s and Sky and Deceuninck in the 2010s.
However, more fluidity between the top teams and the rest of the peloton would be a healthier thing for the sport. Ineos, UAE Emirates and Bahrain have all got big budgets and can afford to buy themselves more success, putting the pressure on other teams who want to compete. UAE Emirates in particular have been quietly building a superteam - in their first two seasons, in 2017 and 2018, the outfit won 19 and 13 races. But in the last two seasons they went above 30 wins for the year and they are on target to at least equal that in 2021.
On the other hand, the 2021 Tour de France was marked by an unusual state of affairs in the final general classification - the top 14 places were occupied by 14 different teams, an unprecedented result. The only Tour that has ever come close is 1970, when the top 11 rode for different teams. Though the actual wins were concentrated among the top teams, many more teams consistently had riders in the front group in the mountains. There do seem to be crumbs to fight for, but is it enough?