The Power of Race Organisers

With control over the biggest races and media rights, a handful of organisers operate in a position close to a monopoly over the sport’s key assets.

The invisible backbone of cycling

Professional cycling is often told through teams and riders.

They win races, attract attention and define the narrative of the sport. Yet behind every event lies a less visible but far more powerful actor: the race organiser.

Organisers design the courses, take on the financial risk, manage the logistics and ultimately control the product that fans consume. In a sport without a central league structure, they also sit at the heart of its economic model.

A sport without a league

Unlike most major sports, professional cycling does not operate under a centralised system.

There is no league negotiating and redistributing media rights. Instead, each race is owned and commercialised individually. Organisers produce the events, sell the broadcasting rights and retain most of the associated revenue.

Teams, by contrast, rely heavily on sponsorship and have little control over the commercialisation of the sport itself. This creates a structural imbalance where those who create the events also capture the majority of the value.

Over time, this imbalance has become more pronounced, placing organisers in a position where they effectively dictate the economic rules of the sport.

The Big Three

At the top of this ecosystem, three organisers dominate the global calendar:

• Amaury Sport Organisation

• RCS Sport

• Flanders Classics

Together, they control:

• all three Grand Tours

• all five Monuments

• a significant share of the WorldTour calendar

This concentration gives them a level of influence that goes beyond simple organisation. It places them in a position close to an oligopoly, where a small number of actors control access to the sport’s most valuable assets.

Different models, same leverage

While these three organisers operate differently, they converge on one fundamental point: control.

Amaury Sport Organisation leverages scale and history, structuring the calendar around flagship events such as the Tour de France.

RCS Sport focuses on integration, combining events, media production and distribution around assets like the Giro d'Italia.

Flanders Classics takes a more dynamic approach, concentrating high-value events and expanding into new formats such as cyclocross and gravel.

Despite these differences, they all control access to the races that matter most — and therefore to visibility, sponsorship and relevance.

A quasi-monopoly over value

Cycling’s most important races are scarce, historic and irreplaceable.

Events such as the Tour de France, Paris-Roubaix or Milano-Sanremo cannot be replicated or substituted.

This scarcity creates a form of structural dominance. Teams need access to these races to justify their existence, attract sponsors and gain visibility. Organisers, on the other hand, can operate without direct dependency on any single team.

The result is a system where organisers hold a decisive bargaining position.

Media rights: the core imbalance

This imbalance is particularly visible in the distribution of media rights.

Organisers produce and sell broadcasting rights, often generating significant revenues for flagship events. These revenues are only partially redistributed to teams, which remain largely dependent on external sponsorship.

In contrast to league-based sports, where media rights are centralised and shared, cycling operates under a model where the main creators of value on the road do not directly benefit from its commercial exploitation.

This reinforces the organisers’ dominant position and contributes to the financial fragility of many teams.

The rise of premium experiences

At the same time, organisers are diversifying their revenue streams.

Beyond media rights, there is a clear shift towards premiumisation, particularly in hospitality and VIP experiences.

Flanders Classics is one of the most advanced examples of this trend. Around events such as the Tour of Flanders, it has developed an extensive offering of paid VIP zones, corporate packages and exclusive experiences.

These offerings target companies and high-value clients, transforming races into business platforms as much as sporting events.

This evolution reflects a broader shift in the economics of cycling, where value is increasingly generated through experience, access and proximity rather than solely through media exposure.

Beyond the race: building ecosystems

Modern organisers operate across multiple dimensions:

• media and broadcasting

• sponsorship and partnerships

• hospitality and VIP experiences

• territorial promotion

• fan engagement

A race is no longer just a competition. It is a multi-layered platform combining content, experience and economic impact.

Some organisers, such as RCS Sport, integrate media production directly into their model. Others, like Flanders Classics, push further into experiential and participatory formats.

The outsiders

Outside the dominant trio, several organisers continue to contribute to the diversity of the calendar:

• Cycling Unlimited AG with the Tour de Suisse

• Grands Prix Cyclistes de Québec et Montréal

• Koninklijke Wielerclub Hand in Hand with the E3 Saxo Classic

However, their limited control over flagship events restricts their influence on the overall structure of the sport.

A concentrated system

Professional cycling may appear fragmented, but its economic reality is highly concentrated.

A small number of organisers control the most valuable races, the key moments of the calendar and a large share of the sport’s revenue streams. This concentration gives them significant leverage over teams, sponsors and the broader ecosystem.

Conclusion

Cycling remains a sport shaped by athletes and teams on the road.

But its structure is defined elsewhere.

Organisers create the events, control the assets and capture most of the value. Over time, this has placed them in a position of growing dominance, where they not only organise the sport but also shape its economic rules.

As the gap between stakeholders continues to widen, the balance of power within cycling may become one of its defining challenges.