Quote: wire quin "You've named one large sponsor- Sky is the largest and best team in the world having joined the ranks of cycling during its biggest crisis. The No 1 aim of Sky was to win the ToF, cycling's flagship (and drug riddled) event within 5 years
Cycling is bigger now than its ever been and will grow further.
'"
Here, yes. Cycling is going through a boom here. In places where it has competed with football as the number one sport it is in a relative slump. These are the people who have been disappointed time and time again. They're the ones who lived and breathed the "now, finally we can move on" moments that have been happening every year since the Festina scandal.
Liquigas have left. HTC have left. Rabobank have left. Hell, we don't even have ex KGB friends of Putin competing with manufacturers of camping accessories any more.
Don't get me wrong, there's still plenty of money in it. And teams have always been here today and gone tomorrow. There's nobody in pretty much the entire history of the sport who can say they watch the same teams their parents did (if anyone even supports teams anyway, I don't really know anyone who does that).
Lots of big companies have left though. HTC were winning every race when they walked out.
Its saving grace is the number of sports that are going to go through this over the coming years. Everything's tainted.