"The Strongest Teams Dominate Too Easily": Lappartient Pushes Salary Cap and Six-Rider Tour Squads
On the eve of the Tour de France, UCI president David Lappartient has renewed his call for sweeping reforms to professional cycling, arguing that a salary cap and smaller Tour teams are now essential to keep the sport competitive and watchable. The Frenchman believes the concentration of the world's best riders inside a handful of wealthy squads is hollowing out the racing — and that the time to act is running short.
"To keep the sport attractive and balanced, it is essential to prevent all the best riders from ending up on the same team," Lappartient said. He revealed that the UCI had spent more than a year and a half developing a salary cap system that was ready to be implemented before the teams voted it down. "Such a salary cap system was ready," he said. "But the teams voted against it. Even the smaller teams opposed it."
For Lappartient, the economics are heading in only one direction without intervention. "Without a salary cap, the richest teams will continue increasing their revenues and monopolising the best riders," he warned. "It will become increasingly difficult for smaller teams to survive." While UAE Team Emirates-XRG remain the obvious example of a super-team, he acknowledged that new sponsorship has also strengthened the likes of Tudor, Q36.5, Lidl-Trek and Decathlon CMA CGM — and floated significant financial penalties for any team that exceeds an agreed spending limit.
The second pillar of his pitch targets the Tour itself. Lappartient questioned whether the traditional format of up to 23 teams of eight riders still serves the spectacle. "Is it really sensible to limit the Tour de France to 22 or 23 teams of eight riders each? That allows the strongest teams to control a 3,500-kilometre race from start to finish," he said. His alternative: more teams, smaller squads. "With 25 teams of six riders each, the race would become less predictable and far more spectacular."
It is a proposal that cuts directly against the concerns several teams have raised about an even larger peloton, with squad bosses arguing that more riders on the road could compromise safety. Lappartient, however, frames smaller teams as the safer and more exciting option, removing the surplus manpower that allows a dominant squad to smother a race for hours on end.
Safety formed the third strand of his argument, with the UCI president insisting that race organisers — not just teams and riders — must be held accountable for dangerous courses. He pointed to the governing body's decision to fine the Giro d'Italia €50,000 over a corner sited just 200 metres from the finish during a chaotic, rain-soaked stage 6 in Naples. "Organisers cannot design a course hoping that the weather will stay dry," he said. "They must be prepared for every possible situation." Whether the teams who once rejected his salary cap are ready to listen now is, as ever, the harder question.