Understanding change in professional road cycling

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 the professional road cycling. Using this development as the case study setting, this paper seeks to illustrate stakeholder theory and network theory at work in a changing environment. Drawing on a series of semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, complemented by analysis of publicly available information, this study explores how the 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 of a desire to challenge some of the well-established relationships and dependencies that have existed therein.