Bike racing in the USA just got an unlikely new ambassador: A Belgian cobble-basher called Wout van Aert.
Speaking to The Athletic during a recent trip to California, Van Aert outlined his Star-Spangled vision for pro cycling.
It’s a West Coast-accented take influenced by his experience shooting hoops with NBA legend Reggie Miller, watching the L.A. Lakers play the San Antonio Spurs, and headlining a group ride along the Pacific Coast Highway.
The three pillars of WVA x USA?
An NBA-inspired financial model, a reborn U.S. race calendar, and some big American dollars.
Just give the Flandrien a dual passport already.
Van Aert calls for a US racing revival
One thing Van Aert can’t get his head around?
Why there’s not a bigger WorldTour footprint in the USA.
“I hope at some point that we have a bigger American circuit,” Van Aert told The Athletic.
“It’s a big market, and basically all the material sponsors that we have, they have their headquarters or offices here. Cycling is ‘something’ here. It’s a shame that we don’t use this platform to show off on the highest level,” Van Aert said last week.
Pro cycling is dramatically shrinking in North America.
The sport’s biggest teams now only venture across the ocean for the Maryland Classic and the Canadian GPs.
Nonetheless, Van Aert has faith in USA’s ongoing stoke for cycling.
“Because we don’t have any big races in the U.S. left on the schedule, you might think it was a sport that has been completely forgotten,” he said. “But once you’re here, you feel that’s the complete opposite.”
Van Aert – who mentioned he hopes to ride Unbound Gravel some day – never raced the Tours of California or Utah before they shuttered, and is yet to make his debut in Maryland.
His long-time team Visma-Lease a Bike never sent him to open his season racing in Australia or the Middle East, either.
And while WVA has spent 99 percent of his career bashing bars in cycling’s European heartland, he doesn’t see travel as an obstacle to a Stateside expansion.
“Logistically, I don’t really think it’s an excuse not to organize it,” he told The Athletic. “Teams are used to having races overseas. The main problem is that the calendar is so packed. I cannot point to a moment where it would fit. But that’s always tricky.”
Van Aert’s Californian capers
Van Aert’s trip to the U.S. this month was both work and pleasure.
This very wholesome video by team Visma-Lease a Bike recaps Belgium’s beloved hanging out with crit star Justin Williams, training with basketball’s “Lethal Shooter” Chris Matthews, and zooming around in Porsches.
Van Aert also spent time with his team and personal sponsors Cervélo and Red Bull.
The 31-year-old told The Athletic he sees the involvement in pro cycling of megabrands like Red Bull as essential to the future of a financially perilous sport.
This winter, scores of riders and staff have been left out of work after Arkéa-B&B Hotels shuttered and teams Intermarché-Wanty and Lotto merged due to sponsor pressures.
‘It would be good to have more American brands in cycling’
Van Aert thinks major U.S. corporations could bring stability to a sport historically propped up by local flooring companies, insurance firms, and superstore chains.
“There is a big market. It shouldn’t be like it’s going now, with teams struggling to find sponsors or even disappearing,” Van Aert said.
“There are only very few teams who have big international sponsors,” he continued. “A team like Red Bull, with such a big brand investing in cycling, that’s what I dream of in the future. To see these kinds of sponsors coming to our sport.”
Austrian energy drink monolith Red Bull is pumping money into road cycling right now.
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe became cycling’s newest $50 million “super team” thanks to the brand’s backing, and it could be a legit Tour de France force with the signing of Remco Evenepoel.
“I believe that we [cycling] have everything to give a lot of value to these brands,” Van Aert said of global giants like Red Bull.
“It would be really good to have more American-based brands. They have more money to put into our sport. I hope we won’t read any more stories of this struggling like we’ve had over the past couple of months,” he said.
An NBA-influenced financial model?
The third pillar of Van Aert’s U.S. shakeup of pro cycling?
A radical reinvention of its financial model.
WVA envisions a system similar to the NBA, a powerhouse label defined by salary caps, revenue-sharing, and a “franchise” method of team ownership.
“You can always learn from other sports,” Van Aert said. “In general, how the NBA is as a federation, it’s completely different to what we have in cycling.
“The financial system they have, that is something we should try and learn from, even though it will be really hard to change that.”
Getting all those ideas past the UCI might require a White House intervention.
Source URL: https://velo.outsideonline.com/road/road-racing/van-aert-u-s-vision-pro-cycling/