Zonneveld sounds the alarm in Vuelta storm around Israel: “Do you think UAE even blinks at Pogacar’s salary?”

“It’s important that cycling as a whole, including the organizers, the UCI, and all the teams, starts thinking about how to deal with this,” he began. “You can keep pretending that sport and politics should remain separate, but that’s simply not the case. Especially when you look at the kinds of sponsors entering cycling.”

Those sponsors often have a lot of money, but also a questionable image. “Cycling is used far more than other sports to whitewash sponsors’ reputations,” Zonneveld said, referring to the term sportswashing. “We need to have a serious discussion about that in cycling, instead of burying our heads in the sand about where the money comes from.”

The problem is: cycling is a sponsor-driven sport, and teams rely on sponsors to cover all costs. “Dodgy” sponsors often bring in a lot of money, which directly impacts the quality of a cycling team. “The big difference with other sports is that cycling itself doesn’t generate money. There are many teams just hoping they’ll still exist next year,” Zonneveld explained.

“That economically unstable climate means that anyone who puts even a bag of money on the table is immediately taken seriously. There’s hardly any choice, that’s incredibly tough. The sport is very vulnerable to sportswashing.” And so the chance that people will protest against those big sponsors with “dirty” money is higher. “You can expect that this will happen, and that it will keep happening more often.”

As Zonneveld stressed, Israel isn’t the only sponsor currently under heavy criticism. “UAE, Bahrain, the World Championships in Rwanda,” the Dutchman listed. “There should be a human rights clause in sport, something like FIFA did years ago around the World Cup in Qatar. And then they handed the World Cup to Saudi Arabia… that makes you look completely ridiculous.”

“The same goes for cycling,” he continued. “Soon we’re heading to Rwanda, where an opposition leader was arrested without any legal grounds and thrown in prison. That’s happening right now. And in the neighboring country, there’s a civil war being sponsored by Rwanda. And then we go there and pretend we’re just going to race. I find that incredibly naïve.”

“There’s just very little money in cycling, and do you think UAE even blinks at Pogacar’s salary?” Zonneveld asked. “He wins so many races, with UAE written big across his chest. When people talk about UAE, it’s no longer about human rights. No, it’s simply seen as a very successful sports team. That’s what sportswashing does.”

“That’s a very tricky discussion, but cycling can’t keep saying it doesn’t care.” And what’s the solution? “Making cycling more economically stable,” said Zonneveld. “That way, a team doesn’t have to blindly accept every bag of money. But the UCI and ASO, as the two biggest players, don’t care about economic stability. So they’re the ones you’ll have to convince.”