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Pro Cycling After COVID

Former UCI President Brian Cookson and Steve Maxwell take a look at what cycling in general, and pro cycling in particular, could look like after we emerge from the COVID era. Over the course of the last several months, there has been a good deal of speculation, prognostication and tentative optimism about how the present COVID era may affect cycling over the longer-term future. As with almost all other aspects of society, it has become something of a cottage industry and regular armchair activity to predict the post-COVID future. Much has been made about the historical tendency of mass pandemics or other global catastrophes to alter the course of history. They have often led to transformative new technological or social innovations, or dramatic new ways of thinking and behaving. Indeed, the origins of the bicycle itself can be traced to just such an historical upheaval. Some things...

How Pro Teams Can Reach Fans During Pro Cycling’s Shutdown

During this unprecedented time, it is more critical than ever that pro cycling teams find new and creative ways to stay engaged with their fans, and to continue to deliver value to their sponsors. The Outer Line surveys team initiatives in the lockdown situation so far, and throws out a broad range of engagement ideas for teams to consider. This is an unprecedented time for pro cycling teams. Like virtually every other entity across the global community, teams are cautiously inching forward. Without much idea of what the near-term future holds, team managers are anxiously trying to determine the best ways to keep their teams motivated and fit, how to develop new revenue models, how to innovate new methods of fan engagement, and how to provide at least some value to economically challenged sponsors. There really isn’t a roadmap for this kind of situation in any professional sport; yet,...

A Year With No Summer

During scary and transformative times like these, we often look to history to provide insight, answers or comfort. When have similar calamities befallen mankind in the past, and how did we react? Did new innovations result? Was there eventually a silver lining? There is one historic parallel which should be of great interest to the cycling community. In early April of 1815, on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa — just east of today’s popular resort island of Bali — a volcano named Mount Tambora began to rumble. On the 10th of April, the mountain exploded. Huge columns of fire shot from the mountain; plumes of ash and smoke reached 25 miles into the atmosphere. Superheated pyroclastic flows poured down the side of the mountain at 100 miles per hour, destroying everything in their path. 10,000 people were killed almost instantly. Nearby towns were buried with ash, enough to collapse most...

Coronavirus Poses a Major Threat to Pro Cycling Sponsorships

Pro cycling managers are worried that the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic could spell financial ruin for teams across the sport, as major sponsorship contracts could be annulled or ignored by the unprecedented strain placed on major companies by the virus. This sentiment was one of several alarming perspectives that were shared with The Outer Line by multiple team managers we spoke to about the mounting pandemic and its potential impact on the sport. The Outer Line recently reached out to team managers to find out how they are coping with the racing shutdown in the wake of the COVID-19 shutdown. While it’s clear that most don’t want to speculate publicly about where things are headed, several were willing to speak off-the-record. Their general hope is that the sport will still be able to recover some of its season, and that sponsors will receive at least some return on their investments....

Report From Ground Zero on the Impact of COVID-19

For six-time national time trial champion Marco Pinotti, now head of performance for CCC Team, the ordeal started at 4 a.m. on the cold morning of February 20th, when he headed to the airport to catch a flight to the Middle East for the UAE Tour. “I knew that the coronavirus had been around in China since January, and I thought I was being preventive. I took plenty of tissue paper and extra alcohol-based hygiene spray. I didn’t even shake hands with the taxi driver who was waiting for me outside of the house,” said Pinotti, who retired after the 2013 season. The day after he landed in Dubai, Pinotti learned that one of the first instances of the virus in Italy had been detected in a small hospital not too far from his hometown of Osio Sotto, between Milan and Bergamo. Shortly thereafter, a few further cases were reported at another hospital only some 20 kilometers away. Almost...