Cycliste Professionnels Associés

CPA Rift Forces The UCI’s Hand

With his unexpected comments this past weekend about the status of the CPA, and a shadowy global strategy to destabilize the UCI, David Lappartient may have ill-advisedly shifted rider frustrations away from the CPA and towards the UCI. Long-simmering tensions between the men’s WorldTour riders and its athlete association, the Cycliste Professionels Associes (CPA) have been heating up in recent weeks. An informal splinter group of riders, reportedly including some 350 members of the peloton, has been more aggressively questioning the CPA’s practices, its role and its actual value to the riders. They are pushing for a one-man, one-vote structure, rather than the current lopsided and biased system of national union voting blocs. Because of concerns about the weakness and ineffectiveness of the current system, two national unions have previously withdrawn from the organization. The...

Executive Summary: Review and Audit of the Cycliste Professionnels Associés (CPA)

(Editors’ Note: This article briefly summarizes a detailed independent review and analysis of the current operations and performance of the Cycliste Professionnels Associés (CPA) – professional road cycling’s athlete representation organization. The full report is available here.) The Cycliste Professionnels Associés (CPA) was formed in 1999, to better coordinate professional cycling’s pre-existing national rider associations, to “act as a reference point” in the case of issues which went beyond national borders, and more generally to protect the rights and interests of riders. Among its important early accomplishments, the CPA developed a “Joint Agreement” with the teams’ organization – to help govern the relationship between teams and their riders; and a riders’ “Solidarity Fund” – to provide limited financial support to certain retiring riders. It was hoped that the organization...

Shifting Gears: How a Stronger Union Could Change Pro Cycling

Stronger athlete representation is a critical need in professional cycling today. The examples from almost all other professional sports show that the players must have a spot at the table in order for overall conditions in the sport to improve. Although the influential CIRC report dedicated a mere five lines out of two hundred pages to this issue in March 2015, it did recommend that the UCI facilitate the creation of a strong riders’ union – “to give riders a collective voice, particularly on the issues of ownership, revenue sharing, the racing calendar, and anti-doping.” Despite the clear need for stronger athlete representation, and all the grand statements and intentions, not much has changed for the peloton over the past decade. UCI President Brian Cookson promised that he would push for a bigger role for the professional cyclists’ association, and pledged to appoint a special...