Rather than be a bystander, cycling and its constituents have an opportunity to be part of the solution to climate change

A graveyard of trees fixes into focus on the screen. The television footage zooms in on their burnt skeletons, thin and black. Dark ash is spread beneath their leafless arms. The camera then catches the peloton, a kaleidoscope of colour blurred against the barren landscape. The riders snake through the hillside; their movements are almost alien, otherworldly. It’s the Tour Down Under, at the opening of the 2020 UCI World Tour.

Months earlier, across the Australian continent, wildfires raged. These fires spread their fury across the nation, reaching a devastating crescendo along the south-east coast. The red, black and grey ate up national parks, vineyards and farmland. It scorched the beautiful bush and damaged ancient Aboriginal cultural sites. With only a slight altering of circumstance, there might have been no Tour Down Under.

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Cycling is a sport with no parallel. What other sport is played out across the world, traversing thousands of kilometres on countless roads, twisting and turning, up mountains, along rivers, next to the coastlines and through narrow towns? What other sport explores the edges of a nation, and races across its heart?

It’s an ever-changing playing field. In pro cycling, only a thin line exists between the athlete and the natural world. It’s beautiful, it’s dramatic and it’s what makes cycling such a great sport. But it could also be its greatest threat. Heatwaves and unpredictable weather could easily stop a race in its tracks, changing outcomes, or even preventing any start.

Though human-induced climate change may not be the sole cause of each bushfire, it certainly has increased their severity and destructiveness. While the weather has always been a key character in the world of cycling, what happens when that character becomes increasingly sinister?

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Stage two of the Tour Down Under, from Woodside to Stirling, was marked by damage from bushfires. Photograph: David Mariuz/EPA

Professional cycling is a sport that has weathered many storms in its long history. The sport’s ongoing fight against the scourge of doping has been one of its greatest challenges. Yet, it is also arguably the case that not many other sports have had the same level of introspection, self-scrutiny and action on this front either.

Cycling, in some ways, has faced up to the reality of doping and is actively working on solutions to it. The sport no longer views it as a scab that will simply heal itself; rather it is something that needs attention, action. The future and the integrity of the sport depends on it. A consequence of this has been the acknowledgment of doping’s existence and its impact in cycling. The same, however, cannot be said for the threat of climate change.

It’s too easy to be passive in this regard. Admittedly sport does not have the power of a policy-making government. Professional cycling does not necessarily drive global economic investment. Rather than be a bystander, professional cycling and its constituents can be part of the solution. The future of the planet does not have to be marred in black ink; we do not need to be resigned to a desolate future.

At its best, sport can be the expression of shared human experience, bringing us together. Professional sport – in its ability to display the possibility and artistry of the human body – is not an idle actor. It has currency and power. Policies and strategies, led by the governing body, need to be crafted in a manner that factors in the likelihood of worsening weather conditions due to climate change.

The current extreme-weather protocols, enacted in 2016, are inadequate in the face of future climatic challenges. The protocols are not strategic, but rather reactionary, with no broader perspective outside of assessing individual weather events as they arise. Professional cycling could also take a more critical approach with sponsorship, considering what role a sponsoring entity may have in the context of climate change. These are not easy tasks, nor do they have straightforward or painless solutions.

Professional cycling, almost exclusively, relies on sponsorship, and every year it seems as though teams are on the edge of collapse. Financial stability and sustainability are very real challenges for the sport. Unsurprisingly, money often speaks louder than the more complicated ethical considerations that may be attached to the cash.

Yet with the predicted economic costs associated with climate change, perhaps a lack of cycling sponsorship could be another consequence of our warming planet. Plans for the sport’s future should be developed with this global reality factored in. Discussions on how pro cycling can be a part of the global movement to reduce emissions should take place.

And now, as summer draws to an end and the peloton moves on from Australian leg of the World Tour, the fire and trauma for those on the front line remain. But perhaps, just maybe, a much-needed conversation will begin. Professional cycling’s future may depend on it.