When it was revealed that Stage 6 of the 2024 Vuelta a España will start from inside a Carrefour in the southern Spanish city of Cádiz, the cycling community took note with a mix of laughter, pain, and understanding.
Carrefour is a prominent French multinational retail and wholesaling corporation headquartered in Massy, France. It operates a vast network of hypermarkets, grocery stores, and convenience stores, with approximately 13,894 locations across over 30 countries, making it the seventh-largest retailer globally by revenue.
On August 22, 2024, and unprecedented will celebrate the twelfth anniversary of Carrefour as the main sponsor of the prestigious Vuelta a España. The peloton will roll through the interior of Carrefour, which will become the starting gate for the cyclists, and will then be led by the racing car in the area where customers usually do their shopping. The store will be decorated to celebrate this event, and a representation of customers and collaborators will be honorary witnesses of this sporting moment . The event will include a series of activities for the entire families, and Carrefour has even prepared interactive activities, tastings and raffles for attendees to enjoy at Parque Vuelta.
In Jerez alone, more than 400 employees will be involved in the preparations for this event. All this in a year in which Carrefour has become a premium partner of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Carrefour Spain will collaborate with Casa España in Paris by delivering Carrefour branded products and is committed to converting the medals of Spanish athletes into reforestation actions.
Among fans, this can appear as a silly marketing gag, and, well, essentially it is a silly marketing gag! But it also reflects the reality of the role of sponsors in professional road cycling today. Everyone knows that cycling depends on direct funding from sponsors much more than fans which are the source of a significant amount of revenue for larger team sports such as football and basketball. It should only be expected, then, that races will not be formed out of amateur purity, but in direct connection to sponsorship goals.
Should fans welcome this? Should fans be angry? Should they be dismayed? These would all be valid questions. From my perspective (as voice of The Cycling Gazette) the answer to each of these questions should be yes. This may appear paradoxical, but the economics and reality of professional cycling seem to require this outcome.
Professional cycling only exists because of major sponsors like Carrefour to provide millions in funding each year to keep teams and races afloat. If you want to watch professional cycling at the highest stage, you need to welcome goofy marketing tactics so these sponsors keep up profit margins to support cycling.
Yet there is reason to be both mad and dismayed. Coming to terms that a sport which many love and connect to for its simplicity and connection between an individual and what nature gives you on any given day is supported by strange, sprawling artificial complexes of rather ruthless profit seeking is hard and one need not turn a blind eye to what they see as injustice in support of professional athletics.
While much more could certainly be said about this subject, I think this covers well the positive and negative realities of professional cycling and being a fan of the sport. Regardless, as you possibly ponder this and your fandom, you may want to keep coming back to the relationship between Carrefour and the widely beloved Vuelta a España.
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