The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) is pleased to publish today a summary of the contributions gathered as part of its stakeholder consultation on the reform of professional road cycling. The full summary is available on the UCI website.
This publication of this summary follows its presentation to members of the UCI Management Committee at their meeting from 20 to 22 September in Montréal, Canada. It had already been presented to members of the Professional Cycling Council earlier in the month.
The consultation, entitled "Future of Road Cycling," was launched by the UCI in February 2026. In a letter sent to riders, teams and their owners, race organisers, UCI-affiliated National Federations, and recognised representative associations of organisers, teams and riders, the UCI invited each stakeholder to submit, by 30 April, their analysis of the current state of cycling and their vision for the future of men's and women's professional road cycling. Five consultation themes were defined: calendar and participation; the economic model; fan engagement; safety; and the integrity of results.
The consultation is part of a broader effort to evolve the organisational model of professional road cycling in order to strengthen its appeal over the long term. While the sport today enjoys strong and growing popularity across five continents, its media exposure and the revenue it generates for its stakeholders do not yet fully reflect its potential. The consultative approach behind this process aims to seize existing opportunities while preserving the discipline's historic strengths.
The UCI received a total of 55 detailed contributions from across the full spectrum of cycling: National Federations from several continents, organisers of one-day and stage races – from Class 2 up to the UCI WorldTour –, men's and women's teams and their associations, riders and rider representatives, as well as equipment manufacturers, broadcasters and commercial sponsors.
The contributions reveal broad consensus on the key issues facing professional road cycling. The following recommendations came up most often:
developing a more coherent calendar, structured around geographic blocks;
consolidating commercial and media rights, with a solidarity mechanism for distributing the new revenue generated;
introducing a financial fairness mechanism among professional teams, such as a budget cap or equivalent;
strengthening the second division and maintaining an open, protected pyramid;
treating safety as non-negotiable, with stricter enforcement of existing requirements;
continuing the carefully managed growth of women's cycling;
modernising broadcasting and fan engagement;
improving officiating through new technologies (VAR, GPS, etc.) and ensuring robust integrity systems.
Safety stands out as the strongest point of convergence from the contributions, with a common call for shared responsibility among organisers, teams and riders. This consensus reinforces the work already under way for safety through SafeR, the body created by the UCI and the main stakeholders in road cycling to improve safety in racing. This work will continue on its own timeline, independently of the reform process.
While the contributions largely agree on the diagnosis, they diverge on the details, particularly on what form a financial fairness mechanism should take and how far commercial and media rights should be consolidated. These two questions will be at the heart of upcoming discussions.
The development of women's cycling, meanwhile, enjoys unanimous support, and the contributions call for continuing its growth at a controlled pace, while strengthening the economics of women's teams and the visibility of the UCI Women's WorldTour.
Several reforms carried out in recent years have helped drive the development of road cycling (internationalisation, new events, growth of women's cycling, etc). The task now is to keep building on this positive momentum together, in a spirit of dialogue and shared responsibility, under the auspices of the UCI.
With the results of the consultation now known, the UCI will begin in-depth discussions with the various stakeholders and partners involved, in order to propose ways forward for building a stronger, more attractive and sustainable model for men's and women's professional road cycling. These initial orientations will be presented during the UCI Women's WorldTour and UCI WorldTour Seminar, to be held in Benidorm, Spain, on 9 and 10 December. The first measures could be introduced as early as the 2029 season.
UCI President David Lappartient said: "Road cycling is currently experiencing unprecedented growth. That success comes with responsibilities: to identify new areas for progress and to write the next chapter of our sport together. The first of these responsibilities is safety. It is not negotiable, and it will move forward at an even faster pace than the other parts of the reform. The result of this consultation is remarkable, both in the diversity and the quality of the responses received. What unites the different families of cycling is far more important than what can sometimes divide them. The report presented today lays the groundwork for the thorough, collaborative work still ahead of us as we build a new model for our sport. I warmly thank everyone who took part in this consultation, and I am confident about our continued work together."