Sky’s rival: Slash big budgets

CYCLING must introduce a budget cap to stop one team being able to dominate again, according to the boss of one of Team Sky’s rivals. Financial regulation of the World Tour is one of the main changes world cycling chief David Lappartient wants to make but this was considered unlikely while Sky’s budget exceeded £30million. Yet insiders think it could happen after Sky end their sponsorship of Sir David Brailsford’s team. Jonathan Vaughters, head of EF Education First-Drapac team, told Sportsmail that cycling is a ‘little bit of a throwback to 1970s football’ and needs to come into line with other global sports who have introduced versions of financial fair play. Team Sky have won four of the last five Grand Tours with a budget almost double that of their nearest rivals. Vaughters said: ‘I support budget caps. That would be the way to go.’ But he opposes salary caps as he thinks teams should have the freedom to decide how they use their budgets. THE verdict in Jess Varnish’s employment case against British Cycling and UK Sport will not be revealed until mid-January.