There's nothing quite like a gimmick to pique people's interest, is there?
When Oleg Tinkov, the Russian millionaire owner of the Tinkoff-Saxo cycling team, announced last month that he was prepared to give €1m to the world's top four Grand Tour riders if they would race all three Grand Tours in 2015, it put cycling in the news far more prominently than is usual at the tail end of the season.
The riders Tinkov wanted to seduce were Chris Froome, Alberto Contador, Vincenzo Nibali and Nairo Quintana, each of whom have won a Grand Tour within the last two years. Yet there have been few opportunities for fans of the sport to see the celebrated quartet battle it out against one another.
Which is exactly the reason Tinkov came up with his million-euro incentive. The idea stemmed from the failure of the top four riders to go up against each other directly at big races. "It comes from my desire to see all the great champions in the three biggest races of the year," said the Russian.
"It would be the biggest sporting initiative of 2015. It is not normal when the four or five best riders are consistently trying to avoid each other in the major races, and win without hard competition."
Tinkov, renowned for his maverick outbursts and madcap ideas, actually makes a valid point. What ensures a sport thrives and subsequently flourishes is its rivalries. Men's tennis has been the perfect example of this, from John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg to Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi and the most recent epic head-to-heads between Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal. Their needle has drawn the attention of those who had little more than a passing interest in the sport. In fact, the emergence of the 'big four' in tennis - Federer, Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray - has given the sport its most intriguing period in decades.
This is what Tinkov is trying to replicate in cycling. There is something disheartening about the big riders continually avoiding each other, each picking a different Grand Tour on which to focus and ensuring that they rarely, if ever, compete against one another.
The Russian's suggestion became even more pertinent last week when the route for the 2015 Tour de France was unveiled. A lack of time trials and a real emphasis on climbing did not appeal to Froome, who posted a statement on his website almost immediately suggesting that he was considering skipping 'La Grande Boucle' next year and instead focusing on the Giro d'Italia/Vuelta a Espana double. Quintana, the 2014 Giro winner, will not defend his title, while Contador and Nibali have both said they are likely to omit the Vuelta from their schedule.
While it is entirely each rider's prerogative to decide his own race plan, it does nothing to promote the sport when the defending champion and one of the world's best Grand Tour riders suggests that he will miss the biggest race on his sport's calendar out of choice. At this year's Tour Contador, Froome and Nibali all began the race but with Contador and Froome both failing to get to the halfway point, the mighty battle for the yellow jersey that had been anticipated failed to materialise.
So when you consider these facts and the realisation dawns that it seems unlikely, to say the least, that all four riders will begin the same Grand Tour next year, Tinkov's proposal appears eminently more attractive. There can be little doubt that cycling would benefit from its big guns going head to head, building up rivalries over the years just as has happened throughout the tennis season. That Dave Brailsford, the mastermind of British cycling, has said that Tinkov's plan "has merit" illustrates just how keen those within the sport are to exploit these rivalries.
Yet there remains a flaw in Tinkov's suggestion. To complete one Grand Tour per season is testing; to complete two becomes incalculably more taxing; to complete all three in one year is nigh on impossible, certainly for any individual who has his eye set on claiming victory. With only five weeks between the Giro and the Tour and then just a further four weeks until the start of the Vuelta, it is a physical improbability for any rider to contemplate riding all three in one season.
But the nub of Tinkov's point remains salient. For cycling to appeal to the broadest audience possible, the top riders need to be competing against each other more regularly than they currently are. It may take a more imaginative suggestion than Tinkov's €1m pot of gold to make it happen but the Russian has set the cogs in motion.
It may not happen next season - in fact it almost certainly will not - but, sooner rather than later, cycling's big-guns will be racing head to head.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article