Rapha believes that cycling is the toughest and most beautiful sport in the world. That it should be introduced to more people and that in so doing our sport can transform lives. Professional racing is the shop window of cycling and at its very best, can inspire huge swathes of fans to embark on a lifelong journey through the sport. This report was written with that aim in mind, designed to answer the question of how the sport can be made more engaging, more exciting and more accessible to better connect with fans and better encourage participation in the sport.



In so doing, the Rapha Roadmap seeks to guide Rapha’s involvement in contributing to a better future, one built on engagement with opportunities afforded by technical, commercial and social innovation to drastically change how the sport is consumed. The following pages identify the primary obstacles to the sport’s growth and offer solutions that would radically reimagine its offering. Based on the latest analysis of cycling and other sports and informed by dozens of interviews with industry influencers and experts, it seeks to build on cycling’s current position to create the environment for even greater reach and value. The format and structure of professional racing, the economics of the sport, its media distribution and broadcasting, sponsorship and ownership as well as amateur, club and geographic dynamics will all be considered. It should at once offer potential routes for realistic, meaningful reforms across the sport and encourage debate about its future. We have conducted this research in the hope that we might contribute and by way of inviting much broader participation in that discussion.



Our research was compiled over more than 18-months and draws on the experiences of the sport’s most established stakeholders. As well as interviews with current and former leaders in the sport (a full list is available in Appendix 1), it was researched by Daam Van Reeth, a sports economist at the Research Centre for Economics in KU Leuven University, Joseph Harris and Steve Maxwell, part owner of VeloNews and together co-editors of The Outer Line, a US publication dedicated to the advancement of professional cycling, and Oliver Duggan, Head of Media and Copy at Rapha. The recommendations for reform and commitments for action from Rapha outlined below are based on our research for the Roadmap, but they are not universally endorsed by all interviewees. Their thoughts were invaluable but these are Rapha’s conclusion alone. The work identifies and addresses a broad set of problems for the sport:



A failure to grow the sport as a whole, resulting in far too little revenue across the board and therefore a lack of investment in initiatives that could make professional cycling more exciting and more accessible to more fans.



A weak financial model that is almost entirely dependent upon unpredictable commercial sponsorship, leading to a constant state of economic instability and ultimately creating an extremely poor model for meaningful growth.



An out-of-date and regularly changing competitive structure, with an overloaded and overlapping calendar of races at the elite level that make it increasingly difficult for fans new and old to enjoy the sport.



Outdated models of broadcast production, content accessibility, viewership measurement, and media distribution systems, as well as failure to champion characters and narratives within the sport on new platforms and a challenging media cycle focussing on doping and safety.



Under-investment, under-development, and inconsistent focus on women’s professional cycling and youth development programmes, as well as a staid approach to team and athlete management with a lack of emphasis on engagement.



Systematic failure amongst almost all stakeholders in the sport to encourage and facilitate fan access and participation in the spectacle of professional cycling.



A confusing and often conflicted governance structure, which does not have the resources necessary to oversee the sport and which has given rise to conflict at the centre of the sport’s organisation.

Recommendations for reform of the sport are therefore focused on five main topics that seek to stimulate debate over its potential future; 1) alterations that could be made to the format and structure of the racing calendar, 2) changes that could be sought to better connect teams and athletes to their fans, 3) improvements to the sport’s organisation and governance to facilitate deeper connections between professionals and amateurs, 4) transformation of the media produced around the sport to better broadcast the personalities within it, and 5) reorientation of the economics to reduce instability. Each of these suggestions has been designed to work both together or individually to create an environment for growth within the sport. The central findings of the Rapha Roadmap suggest:



Professional cycling must fundamentally reform and shorten its calendar to create a season-long series of linked races that reward individual triumphs throughout the year

It must find new ways to judge riders’ success, revolutionising traditional models of racing and winning to promote combative and aggressive racing across the season in new locations and formats

It must promote team structures that elevate rider stories, rewarding riders as much for their roles as ambassadors as athletes and moving beyond performance as the sole motivation

It must become the most transparent, media-friendly sport in the world, creating content that champions the human stories of the sport at every conceivable opportunity and building communities out of fans

The production and distribution of entertainment must be integrated into the heart of the sport, giving fans more access, creating more content and evaluating success by engagement

Teams, events and stakeholders must pursue solid links with wider participation in cycling, integrating with clubs, infrastructure lobbyists and broader fitness initiatives and taking on leadership roles on safety and environmentalism

Coverage of the sport must be enhanced with the adoption of cutting-edge direct-to-audience broadcast models and episodic, free-to-view content creation on a variety of platforms

Women’s racing must be promoted as aggressively as men’s, with greater emphasis on building and promoting characters and commitments to parity to capitalise on a huge untapped opportunity

Events and teams must urgently pursue diverse revenue streams, monetising opportunities around gate fees, marketing opportunities, merchandise, public rides, tiered-access content, fan access and more

The sport must better monitor and develop its sponsorship proposition locally and globally, and the main costs associated with the sport - team budget, event organisation, television broadcast - must be reduced through shared resources and modernisation

The UCI’s role must be reconsidered in relation to the friction with events organisers as leaders in reform of the sport

Long-term plans for youth development, including a radical approach to talent programmes that promote careers in the sport beyond riding must be developed.

In each of these areas, there is potential for Rapha to actively work towards potential reforms that could encourage change within the sport. Based on the research within this report, the business has committed to several major initiatives that will help shape the future of Rapha. As well as continuing to develop products and services that perfect the average rider's cycling experience, it will endeavour to promote the characters and personalities within the sport with major investment in its own media creation. Launching for the first time during the 2018 World Tour, Rapha’s editorial content will go on to contribute rich, entertaining content around cycling that connects new fans to the sport in new ways.



Rapha has also overhauled its approach to team and athlete sponsorship from 2019 onwards, completely changing the way it has previously invested in the professional sport. Working with the most exciting riders, men and women, and combining with the passionate advocates for the sport, we will seek to create a new model for a professional cycling team that fundamentally changes fan expectations and ultimately the sport itself. The team approach will change Rapha’s relationship with the sport to better promote storytelling and reform within the World Tour. Starting in the 2019 World Tour through a ground-breaking media partnership with EF Education First Pro Cycling, Rapha will seek to engage millions of new fans by creating and publishing the most innovative portrayal of pro cycling. The approach will see riders race beyond the traditional confines of World Tour events, exploring the outskirts of the sport as it currently exists to expand its horizons.



Following publication of the Rapha Roadmap, the company will make a sustained effort to lead innovation to build a better future for professional cycling, building on the research herein by inviting criticism and contributions from stakeholders and fans around the world and providing the space for those discussions.



In the sections that follow, the Rapha Roadmap will expand on the problems facing the sport and its position within an evolving social, economic and technological landscape, and offer specific suggestions on how cycling could evolve in the 21st century. Cycling must be revitalised to become more widespread and more popular and it must prioritise meaningful engagement with the audience above all else. A new direction and more robust viewership for the professional sport can lead to greater visibility for cycling across the board, and can help to draw in new participants. Cycling should endeavor to become the world’s most inclusive recreational and widely accessible sport, in which all can participate. To do that, it must reform.