Watching the peloton - Professional Road Racing thread 2026
- Thread starter Rás Cnoic
- Start date
stompandgo
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
Jonas also wants to win both in the same year. Tadej isn't the only Grand Tour rider that has goals.
stompandgo
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
While I agree that it may be too early, it will be great fun to watch. My take is that it will come down to team strength. UAE has that in spades, Visma is up in the air, and Decathlon needs help.
Rás Cnoic
Hillrider a.k.a. The Apostle
- Region
- United Kingdom
- City
- Dartmoor
Agreed. And he can't lose - if he does well, top 3, it's great, if he's outside top ten, then maybe he grabs a stage and the white jersey, still a win for him at 19. I've come around to the idea!
I think Bora will be worried now, could be very close 2nd to 5th...
Rás Cnoic
Hillrider a.k.a. The Apostle
- Region
- United Kingdom
- City
- Dartmoor
Here's a better view of the grey/green INEOS kit. Grey/Green rather than Netcompany (Danish AI company!) because their green colour matches the TdF Green points jersey too closely.
www.cyclingnews.com
So INEOS; multinational chemicals, Netcompany; AI and Total Energies; a petroleum company. All in a sport with no motors which for about a 150 years has been naturally green. Madness. I miss the days when most sponsors were household white goods, flooring, clothes soft drinks and sweets, for the bored housewives at home with the telly on!
Green or grey? Why Ineos had to tone down the colour scheme for their first jersey under new Netcompany identity
British team to debut new look during Giro d'Italia on May 8
www.cyclingnews.com
So INEOS; multinational chemicals, Netcompany; AI and Total Energies; a petroleum company. All in a sport with no motors which for about a 150 years has been naturally green. Madness. I miss the days when most sponsors were household white goods, flooring, clothes soft drinks and sweets, for the bored housewives at home with the telly on!
Jeremy McCreary
Bought it anyway
- Region
- USA
- City
- Carlsbad, CA
Too bad about that drab, nondescript new kit. As a TV fan, I really like kits — like the Visma yellow or UAE black on white — that stand out from the crowd.Here's a better view of the grey/green INEOS kit. Grey/Green rather than Netcompany (Danish AI company!) because their green colour matches the TdF Green points jersey too closely.
Green or grey? Why Ineos had to tone down the colour scheme for their first jersey under new Netcompany identity
British team to debut new look during Giro d'Italia on May 8
So INEOS; multinational chemicals, Netcompany; AI and Total Energies; a petroleum company. All in a sport with no motors which for about a 150 years has been naturally green. Madness. I miss the days when most sponsors were household white goods, flooring, clothes soft drinks and sweets, for the bored housewives at home with the telly on!
mschwett
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
i have to say … as an american, i simply do not understand the “teams.”Here's a better view of the grey/green INEOS kit. Grey/Green rather than Netcompany (Danish AI company!) because their green colour matches the TdF Green points jersey too closely.
Green or grey? Why Ineos had to tone down the colour scheme for their first jersey under new Netcompany identity
British team to debut new look during Giro d'Italia on May 8
So INEOS; multinational chemicals, Netcompany; AI and Total Energies; a petroleum company. All in a sport with no motors which for about a 150 years has been naturally green. Madness. I miss the days when most sponsors were household white goods, flooring, clothes soft drinks and sweets, for the bored housewives at home with the telly on!
countries, i understand, olympics, world cup
companies that make the equipment and sell related equipment in the world, i get, e.g. f1
universities, colleges, i get
franchises associated with a city or state, i get
a “team” from germany that rides specialized bikes and names itself after an energy drink company and two kitchen equipment manufacturers? wtf
Jeremy McCreary
Bought it anyway
- Region
- USA
- City
- Carlsbad, CA
Then you're really not going to understand the new Charmin Ex-Lax Preparation H team just announced.
;^}
Rás Cnoic
Hillrider a.k.a. The Apostle
- Region
- United Kingdom
- City
- Dartmoor
Think it goes back to the 50s and mimicked car and motorbike racing with sponsors blazoned on every bit of kit. The big problem for cycling that always makes it a poor relation is the lack of gate receipts. Football clubs growing up around a stadium and town and the club identity forever stamped. You get a million people on the roads watching TdF but zero income so teams grab any sponsor they can get.
I think locally in cycling mad countries and areas they know their local cycling outfit even when the sponsor changes, but yeah, I agree that having the club name first, permanently and the changeable sponsor after it would geo locate clubs better. We lose just how old some of these teams are and all the history swirling around. Its also a weird one in that it's a team sport but also an individual sport and so we remember the cyclist Merckx etc but details about the teams he rode for have faded into obscurity.
In terms of being poor relation, over the weekend the top tennis players protested they are not getting a fair share of the huge TV & streaming cash in the French Open and want the prize money to increase more:
The French Open last month announced a 9.5% increase in the prize money at Roland Garros to €61.7m (£52.6m), with the men’s and women’s winners to receive €2.8m, but the players remain unhappy.
The increase is significantly less than the 20% rise at the US Open last year, while the players claim that, as a percentage of revenues, the prize fund is being reduced.
“Roland Garros generated €395m in revenue in 2025, a 14% year-on-year increase, yet prize money rose by only 5.4%, reducing players’ share of revenue to 14.3%,” they said in a statement.
That is just one Tennis Open and yet it dwarfs the income from the TdF, the only 'big' race the sport has!