That professional cycling has an unsustainable business model is a fact we must literally come to terms with: sponsors as the sole or primary source of team budgets, no revenue from spectator tickets nor from television rights, which in frankly outdated fashion remain the exclusive domain of race organizers without any distribution to the teams. A mechanism already well highlighted by our editor and one that is putting the global cycling system under increasing strain, prompting various key players to take action.

As revealed by Escape Collective, and confirmed by our sources, much of the World Tour and the cream of the Professional category are giving life to TeamCo, a project born last autumn from six initial investors, including billionaire Ivan Glasenberg (the "Pinarello Q36.5 man") and the ownership of Visma Lease a Bike and Lidl Trek. The starting point would be 25 million euros in initial capital, set to grow with increased membership. The goal is to optimize the scope and management of commercial rights, increase financial sustainability and the spectacle of cycling.

How this will happen in concrete terms, and what alternative business model to the current one TeamCo will present to the UCI, for now we can "have fun" imagining it and, when in a perhaps near future all the cards are defined and signed, observe it directly.