A New World – Non Pro Cycling Pro Tour

There is a lot of talk of a break away league in cycling. It seems to crop up every now and then. It is either Voldemort Armstrong and Snape Bruyneel behind it or Jonathon Vaughters in conjunction with an oligarch would made his fortune farming turnips in Eastern Europe. There is usually a heavy dose of rhetoric decrying the UCI and promising bigger and brighter things in the future. These rumours usually last as long as a fart in an elevator and are just as welcome. Put up or shut up I say!

After reading a terrific article by Tom Reynolds on his blog, the seed was planted in the fertile soil that is my imagination. With about 6 hours in the car yesterday, I started thinking about it some more.

Then this morning, Tom and I started a twitter chat and before long @pelotoncafe was on board as well, suggesting we form our very own break away league. The Non Pro Cycling Pro Tour was born! About 90 seconds in an online logo maker and the logo was done!

What do we stand for? Well, I’m not sure, but I am hoping the very good readers of this blog can get involved in the comments section below and help out. What ideas would you like to see in a break away league? Here are a few of the things that popped up this morning on Twitter.

– Cameras on all bikes, some streaming live HD video to web feeds.
– No race radios. The riders could still have radios but they would be hooked up to the race director and the riders would get safety information only.
– Live GPS and ANT+ data fed to web pages so you could see power numbers, speed, heart rates etc etc of any rider.
– A revised yearly points system that spread the points across the peloton and encouraged racing. Points given for being in breaks, winning sprints and KOMs etc etc.
– A new head honcho, that would obviously be me. I would get to swan around the world watching races and being accountable to no one. (Ok, this isn’t a huge change from the current situation, but it would please me!)
– No power numbers available on bikes.
– Special NPCPT stickers on all bikes in the peloton at a very reasonable $49,000 each sticker.
– Black knicks only, unless you are the lantern rogue, then it is white knicks. (Suggested via Tom, who needs white knicks for calling them shorts!)

Now it is over to you valued reader. What would you like to see as part of the Non Pro Cycling Pro Tour? Let me know in the comments below. Any that the NPCPT board (read, me) ratify, will be added to the list.

Please note, this is all in fun. I don’t want people going bat shit crazy and trying to lynch me. That goes for you too Pat.