Will there be another announcement from the cycling super team on Tuesday?: Mega-Fusion comes too early for Switzerland

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It would be like Real Madrid and Manchester City merging. The best of the best from recent years. Impossible? In football, yes. In cycling it is different. The teams are not location-specific; Only the sponsors determine the name and location in addition to the budget.

And so it could indeed happen that the top teams Jumbo-Visma from the Netherlands and Soudal-Quickstep from Belgium join forces. According to rumors, it could be announced as early as Tuesday that online giant Amazon will enter cycling; the team might be called Visma-Amazon.

This news would not cause euphoria. Many cycling fans fear a two-tier society, because the new super team could destroy everything. The result? Boredom. As a reminder, Jumbo-Visma won all three Grand Tours this year (Giro, Tour de France and Vuelta), with a total of 64 victories. Soudal-Quick-Step is number 2 in the world with 53 victories.

Many drivers are concerned about their jobs

The possible merger affects cycling to its core. “There is a lot of uncertainty at the moment,” confirms Olivier Senn. The director of the Tour de Suisse is also the manager of several professional cyclists such as Stefan Küng (29) and Stefan Bissegger (25). “There would suddenly be fifteen very good drivers on the market. They should all find a new place.” The background: A WorldTour team can consist of a maximum of 30 riders. Giro winner Primoz Roglic (32, Slo), a rider for Jumbo Visma, has already confirmed that he will leave the team – possibly to Ineos.

For drivers with expiring contracts at other teams, the air in a merger would be thin – at least for those not racing for wins. This also applies to the Swiss Johan Jacobs (26, Movistar), Alexandre Balmer (23, Jayco Alula) and former cyclist Reto Hollenstein (38, Israel). Silvan Dillier (33), on the other hand, has already verbally agreed on a new contract with Alpecin-Deceuninck.

“Theoretically interested, but…”

However, there would be an opportunity for the new Swiss cycling teams Tudor and Q36.5. Which? Simple: you could apply for the WorldTour license that would become available in a merger. Currently they belong to the Pro Teams category and are therefore in the second highest cycling competition. “We want to go on the World Tour, but not overnight,” said Tudor CEO Raphael Meyer. The goal is to grow organically and not rush anything.

In fact, in the World Tour you are no longer dependent on wildcards for the biggest races, but you are required to participate in each of the races categorized in this way. This means: While their infrastructure is already excellent, Tudor and Q36.5 would need to expand their workforce, including headcount. “Theoretically we would be interested. But that’s probably too early for us, we need another year,” says Q36.5 boss Luigi Bergamo. In 2025, the cards will be completely reshuffled, after which the World Cycling Association UCI will re-award all 18 licenses.

Source : Blick