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Abstract
The decision in 2005 of the world governing body of cycling, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), to introduce a new competition, the UCI Pro Tour, was a highly significant development in professional road cycling. Using this development as the case study setting, this paper draws on stakeholder theory and network theory to examine this changing environment. Drawing on a series of semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, complemented by analysis of publicly available information, this study explores how this process of change has affected the professional road cycling network, the interaction between its stakeholders and the balance of power among those stakeholders. While commercialism has a long history in professional road cycling, the paper concludes that the change process has been driven by a wish for commercial deepening within the network and by a desire to challenge some of the well-established relationships and dependencies that have existed therein.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the British Academy for funding this research. We would also like to thank participants at the Workshop on Theoretical Approaches to Change in Sport Organisations at EASM in Turin in September 2007 and to the anonymous referees for their comments on earlier drafts of this paper.
Notes
1. More detailed background information is available at www.cyclingweekly.co.uk News Archive.
2. The following year, ASO refused to allow another Pro Tour licensed team, Astana, to take part in the 2008 Tour de France, citing previous drug-related scandals in the team. This decision was taken despite the fact that Astana is the team of the winner of the 2007 Tour de France, Alberto Contador.