Flexible Calendars and New Solutions
Timothy John
“Is it getting easier in this latest lockdown? Matt, you used the phrase, ‘Here we are again,’ and Ian talks about adaptability. The adaptations that all of made last year, Phil, from a business perspective and the managers from a sporting perspective, how many of those are still relevant? Is it easier this time around? Have you got strategies in place that you developed last year? Matt, let’s start with you on that one.”
Matt Hallam
“Yeah, definitely. I found a bit of a formula which worked well last year, even though we had no racing on offer. We were still able to provide return on investment to our sponsors and keep the team really visible, which was our biggest goal. We’re going to use some of that structure this year and mix that in with some racing. Fingers crossed, we’ll be back on the race grid again and competing at a high level.
“I think we’re going to have a nice blend of what worked well for last year and what we can do differently this year. We’ve got a content strategy in place already for this year, and we’ve got some really good ideas that are going to help to keep the team really visible on social and digital platforms. We’re certainly on the right path with the strategy we have in place.”
Phil Jones
“Well, here’s a question: do you reckon there’s going to be a load of crashes, guys, when racing resumes because no one’s used to riding in a bunch anymore; they’ve been on Zwift too long and have forgotten how to ride in a bunch? What do you reckon?”
Simon Howes
“There’s going to be a lot of eager cyclists out there, that’s for sure. It shouldn’t take long [to reacclimatise to bunch racing}]. And the level that many of our riders have reached means that they’re very experienced riders. They don’t want to crash anymore than the person next to them. That’s the main thing.”
Phil Jones
“Do you think a few matches are going to get burned early season? We’ve seen from some of the WorldTour races how much a rider has been riding through the winter or on Zwift and all of that kind of good stuff, and we’ve seen very different performances from people in the early season. I think the first couple of UK road races, when they get going, are going to be quite interesting, really. I guess people are going to want to show their form, but equally there could be a few dark horses who might have been quietly burning away the Zwift miles in the garage.”
Simon Howes
“I think that’s brilliant. I watch WorldTour racing, and towards the end of last year, with the late race programme, and certainly towards the start of this year, the racing has been absolutely brilliant, and I’ve been watching bike racing for a very, very long time. It’s exciting and you do hope that new riders come through that you’ve never seen or heard of before, because that’s what we all strive to achieve, isn’t it: to find new riders that are the next star and the sport’s future. Let’s hope so.”
Timothy John
“Maybe that was the ultimate adaptation that the sport made last year. I remember when it was first announced the season would run from August to November, at WorldTour level, it seemed insane and yet it was wonderful. We had brilliant racing, week after week; you barely had time to catch your breath before the next race. And with races likes Liege-Bastogne-Liege, for example, following the Tour, we got a very different race, didn’t we? We had all the Grand Tour contenders there, and, of course, that incredible finish where Roglic buried the disappointment of the Tour de France emphatically by sweeping underneath Alaphilippe’s outstretched arms on the finish line.
“This idea that the calendar…There is some flexibility built in, almost by definition. Does that give you heart? An example from within your world, of course, is that the Tour Series has been rescheduled from May to August. The Women’s Tour we think is going to happen in October rather than June. It doesn’t seem so fanciful this year, does it? We’ve seen that events can be put back and still be run successfully. What sort of encouragement do you take from that? What about you, Simon? Your UCI team, CAMS-Tifosi, will hope to ride in the Women’s Tour, of course.”
Simon Howes
“Yeah, you take massive heart from that. That’s what keeps us motivated and keeps us training every morning, 9am, out of the door. It’s massively important. Seeing new dates for events is really, really key. You mentioned the Tour Series. They’ve announced the potential for the winners to go and race in America in the USA Crit Series. The messages that appeared in group chats as soon as that was published were endless. There are always key drivers, as we’ve mentioned already. There will always be a driver of some description that makes you train hard and stay motivated.”
Phil Jones
“There’s another important concept, Tim, I just wanted to throw in there, because it’s related to resilience and related to this chat. There’s a very good book called The Black Swan, written by a chap called Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a professor. He was talking about ‘black swan events’, which are huge events that almost come out of the blue that we don’t think exist, like Covid, for example.
“He made a distinction between resilience, which is maybe if you stretch an elastic band and let it go, the band goes back to its previous form, right? It’s an elastic band again. And then what he calls ‘anti-fragility’: that the elastic band would completely change its form in relation to being stretched. It’s not about just going back to how things were. What anti-fragility is
about is how the system improves through the shock.
“I wonder whether we all think cycling will improve as a result of this shock? We’re seeing, perhaps on the Tour Series, that they’re considering integrating Zwift alongside real-world racing. It’s almost like you have the best of both. It’s not just one form of crit racing but a couple of things bolted together, which might become the future of that series, for example.
“So do you think that’s a good thing that might come out of this, that we might get a different type of cycle sport, or do you think that it’s better that we go back to how things were, and hopefully we'll be going back to the same old race programme with the same organisers and all that kind of stuff? I’m just interested.”
Simon Howes
“Development is important among teams, riders, sponsors and events, isn’t it? And, actually, on a personal level, you mentioned the Tour Series integrating an e-racing event. I forwarded that information onto the OnForm girls and since then our group chat hasn’t stopped buzzing. We’ve even spotted that some riders are spending more time e-racing than they did before that announcement was made.
“Again, we’ve mentioned small gains that create motivation, and that has been exactly that. It’s not even a small gain, in truth. It’s created a huge amount of excitement within the team: the chance to race the Tour Series, which many of them haven’t done before. It’s massive.”
Phil Jones
“I’ve definitely seen a lot more riders from across the various teams on Zwift. Your lot, Matt, and Ian, some of yours too, when you look at what their Stravas are doing, and occasionally you’re on Zwift and you see somebody that you're following from one of the teams that you follow and you say: ‘Oh, they’re racing again.’ You will have seen much more e-racing from all members in your team than perhaps in any period before.”
Timothy John
“It was a big win for you, Matt, last year, I seem to remember. You had wins with Alistair Thomas, with Leon Mazzone. You spoke earlier about generating return on investment. How big a deal is e-racing in that context?
Matt Hallam
“Yeah, it’s a real asset for us as a team now, and it was last year. I think before we go into this we’ve got to tip our hats to SweetSpot. What they’re doing at the moment is amazing. They’re creating a lot of positivity around racing, and I think British Cycling could learn a lot from that.
“Heading back to your point, Tim, we did a lot of these British Cycling Zwift races. It was kind of like a mini series that they had. They had races every week. We participated in them. We had some great results. We won an awful lot of those races. Quite a few of my riders really stood out in those races and performed really well. They kept that going and have just started jumping back into the racing on
Zwift.
“It’s a real asset. As I mentioned, it’s a great platform to get involved with. I’m really excited by the prospect of the Tour Series perhaps putting on a virtual event, and again, as I’ve mentioned, I think British Cycling could learn a lot about this. I think they’re completely being left in the dust by what SweetSpot are doing. Why didn’t British Cycling do a live stream event to get some eyes on the sport when there were very few on it?
“It’s just, again, frustration from my perspective as a team manager. I’m looking to our federation for some hope and optimism, but external parties like SweetSpot are absolutely blasting them out of the water at the moment. I’m hopeful that things might change there and we might get some kickback from British Cycling.”
Timothy John
“Well, we spoke in our last podcast, didn’t we Phil, about the impact of a new CEO. Brian Facer has come in. He has a very impressive track record in rugby. He’s a cyclist by instinct, by nature, it seems; he's a guy who enjoys spending time on the bike.
“You can give us a pretty clear insight into the impact that a new CEO can have on a major organisation. Give us a sense of that. Do you think he could be the catalyst? Erick Rowsell’s doing some good work, but, of course, he is just one figure in a major business. It’s the person leading the organisation that can make the biggest change. If Brian is minded that way, could he set BC on a similarly influential path to SweetSpot?”
Phil Jones
“I'm sure. As I explained in that last podcast, Tim, any new CEO who comes in normally spends about 100 days doing what we call ‘strategic sensing’. They do an awful lot of listening and then come up with their own plan. But the big difference with organisations like British Cycling is that with their articles of association, there’s quite a limit on what you can and can’t do. It’s not like you're an entrepreneur running a business and you want to come in and change everything. There’s a massive governance structure that exists in a federation which is written in tablets of stone, and if you want to change it, it's a big process to change it.
“I think what he will do is…If it were me, you’d come straight in and very quickly identify what you can change and what you can’t change. You get in the key people who are responsible for the key areas. You listen to them and say, if you were me what would you do, and then you bring that all back and create your own strategic plan. So I would say, we probably need to give him a little bit more breathing room to do his listening and to bring his own idea to the fore. That will ultimately wind itself through some sort of board process where someone will sign off a new strategic plan and off they go from there.
“I think for the 2021 season, we’re not going to see very much that will give us a brand new image of how things are going to be, but I think we’ve got to hold our breath and, hopefully, come 2022, there will be a couple of operating plans. One will hopefully be, ‘Hey everyone, it’s back to how things were. We’re all vaccinated. Have as many events as you like.’ And the
second one is that the environment remains similar, so what do we now do to up our game and not have a season where we’re just the victim of events.
“What you’ve got to do is put yourself into that theatre and say, ‘If there’s another year like this, what do we now need to do?’ Well, it might be that we’ve got to launch the e-racing league. We’ve got to assume that all the races may well be cancelled so what’s our plan B? What are we going to do about making ‘that’ event like ‘this’ if that happens?
“So there’s probably going to be a bit more contingency planning needed, because if you’re going to learn anything from the last year or so, it’s ever so important to have contingency plans when you’re hit by unexpected events and maybe the Covid pandemic was probably very close to what we call a ‘black swan’ event, but now we would definitely see that as part of our every day risk that we would manage as a business.”