Next Saturday the Tour of Spain starts. Everything shows a great fight between two great teams. It’s already happened on the Tour: it is Jumbos And UAE, led by Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar respectively, grabbed all the attention. One of them is a drink from the European corporate sponsorship tradition; the other represents cycling’s first major petrodollar spike.

The Persian Gulf millionaire monarchy has been investing in sports for some time to diversify an economy that is too dependent on petrodollar reserves. and, incidentally, laundering certain political practices. Football is the most spectacular case, but they have made similar moves in golf, with the LIV circuit, or even paddle tennis, over which the shadow of Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, PSG’s Qatari president, hangs since last year.

In cycling, currently the spearhead is UAE Team Emirates. Its history is very similar to that of a football club like PSG. A historic team on the international cycling scene, sponsored by the Italian aluminum company Lampre, is in a sad decline until a sheikh, in this case from Abu Dhabi, comes along with nearly unlimited funds.

The commercial merit of cycling, which christens its professional teams directly after sponsorships, further emphasizes, where possible, the investment style: the old Lampre was renamed after the country providing the money. Sovereign wealth funds, in this case with bottomless currency pits, take the remnants of prestigious organizations in their field, buy the best and wait to see what happens. Never mind the sport in question doesn’t have much relevance in this country. The important thing is that the sheikh on duty can appear.

The President of the UAE is, of course, an Emirati: His Highness Matar Suhail Al Yabhouni Al Dhaheri, right-hand man to the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, He is a businessman who has been depicted, for example, in the scandal Panama Papers. From there came various advisors and managers from different countries, especially Italy and Spain. Of the dozens of technicians, for example, there is only one Emirati.

And among the 30 cyclists there is not one. In fact, the first classification of Emirati nationality in official ranking of the International Cycling Union (UCI) is ranked 538 and runs at Al Wathba Cycling Team. He is not at the level of Tadej Pogacar (Slovenia), Adan Yates (United Kingdom), Marc Soler or Juan Ayuso (Spain). Multinational talent hired by checkbook.

On the other side of the moat is Team Jumbo-Visma, better known as Jumbo, after its main sponsor since 2018, the Dutch supermarket chain part of food holding company Van Eerd, founded in 1921 in the small Dutch town. . Visma is a Norwegian software company.

in the office ordered general manager Richard Plugge, and on the sports field, former cyclist Nico Verhoeven. Both Dutch. The executive list is filled by sporting directors such as Erik Dekker, Jeroen Blijlevens and Frans Maassen. all dutch.

The stars of the racing team were a Dane, Jonas Jonas Vingegaard, and a Slovene, Primož Roglič, but Belgian Wout van Aert was also a standout. The majority nationality in its ranks is Dutch: 14 runners. The country’s cycling tradition is evident: You just need to take a walk through Amsterdam.

Although they haven’t had much in the UCI classification lately: the best Dutch player, Dylan Groenewegen is in 32nd place, and they are only seventh in the country classification, just behind Spain. That classification, by the way, is led by neighboring Belgium, where there is also a Jumbo supermarket.

However, the management and, above all, the mentality, is Dutch. Latest articles on The Economist Explain “How Jumbo-Visma Became Cycling’s Dominant Team”.

The British weekly stated that the Dutch painting «combine money with good management. That means crafting smart race strategies, but also detailed prep recipes. He illustrated this with several statements from Australian cyclist Rohan Dennis, signed last year, which acknowledged that the team’s approach to nutrition, training and «This team is so famous, that if you don’t play, it’s your fault». They have also shown great concern for personnel selection: in 2019 they signed Jonas Vingegaard’s first professional contract.

There is no oil in Holland.