For many years the same, simple question asked by workmates always had a similar answer at this time of year."Any plans for the weekend?" would elicit a response starting with "I'm going to watch Strade Bianche/ Milan Sanremo/ Tour of Flanders/Paris Roubaix/ Amstel Gold/Liege Bastogne Liege (delete as appropriate depending on what week it was) ...", And for those glorious,all too short years that saw the existence of GCN+, such plans didn't even need negotiations in regards control of the television as I could watch on my laptop if required. But 2025 has been different. For the first time I can remember I actually had to think about my answer. A steadfast refusal to subsidise the millionaires playing the richest sport in the world just so the sports broadcaster would deign to let me watch cycling for a vastly inflated price is of course an important factor. The scummy actions of Warner Bros and their handling of GCN and the shift to TNT is of course bad enough, and the massive gaps in my weekends now further reduce the number of topics of conversation I have in my arsenal even further (and it isn't a very well equipped armoury at the best of times!).
But there's something else- I'm really struggling to care about procycling at the moment- well at least the men's version. And it isn't to do with the dominance of Pogacar or MVDP. It is something that I have struggled with for a while but now has come to a head, something I touched on in a blog post just a couple of years back but has now been exacerbated further ( I mean don't the UCI and race organisers read my blog and consider my learned opinions?!??!). Sportswashing has continued apace in cycling and to be honest it has gone beyond any level of justifiable comfort. An app that shows memories from my social media history flashed up the other day, when I was giving out that Formula 1 was no longer a sport because despite state sponsored violence, they were continuing with the Bahrain Grand Prix. Little did I know then that the same regime would within a few short years be sponsoring an entire cycling team. The brief happiness that the departure of Murdoch's Sky as a sponsor brought was quickly eroded when replaced by INEOS. And while Katusha if it still existed would have been booted out as a result of the invasio of Ukraine, Israel Premier Tech is able to continue to compete free from restrictions despite the ongoing mass murder of Palestinian civilians. Astana was able to hide behind Cav's attempt to get his 35th TdF stage so questions around their funding will be safe from UK media interest for another wee while. Alula allows Saudi Arabia to have a presence in the peloton, sponsoring the Jayco men and women (ironically when you consider the lack of rights Saudi women themselves have), altough let's not forget despite the friendliness and informality of Backstage Pass, Orica used the team as a greenwashing exercise as well.
While Tadje taking off to seal another momentous victory may be a lovely distraction, the well documented abuses and restriction of rights in UAE should not be forgotten. And it isn't just team sponsors. Race organisers and the UCI are bascially following the FIFA model of going wherever the money is and forget about the actual people who live there. Giro starts in Jerusalem and Orban's Hungary, UCI Championships due to take place in Rwanda despite concerns regards Paul Kagame's conduct and allies, the former "desert races" that used to kick off the early season.. the roll of shame goes on.
So where are the articles by the cycling jouros, pundits and podcasters about this? These folk who claim to be asking the "hard questions" (well, hard in the sense that Adam Blythe can spend a whole show accusing Remco of faking a puncture then when being proved wrong using the "only asking questions that need to be asked" defense, conveniently avoidng speculaing at the same time if Fred Wright took out Roglic on the same stage)? Carlton and co, who claim to be fearless (altough in one of his books Carlton admits to apologising and withdrawing a comment on Froome's performance in one race after getting a text from him, despite knowing that his point was accurate) don't even go anywhere close to discussing these concerns. There was no kickback from Hatch, Chennaoui, Blythe et al on behalf of the viewers who stuck with them in the past only to be priced out of watching our sport, and nor is there any attempt to address the real denial of human rights, state-sanctioned murder, torture and oppression that the sponsors of some of the biggest teams in the sport are party to or are at least providing a distraction from.
I knew my relationship with cycling was in a bad way when I realised I wanted more teams and riders to lose than to win. At least with lack of access to watching live races, I don't have to spend a few hours watching only to have to witness a victory by an INEOS rider, Moscon, MAGAboy Simmons , IPT, or Bahrain. Of course when the best rider in the world is paid by UAE, then sportswashing will continue apace and I will look back on the days of Tapis Tonton, FAGOR, Kas, PDM, Lampre, La Vie Claire (ok lets not start with Bernie Tapie!). Molenti, Vacansoleil, Europcar with a nostalgic yearning.
