Being an English football fan is a lot like being a French cycling fan. It’s the hope that kills you.
England last won the football World Cup in 1966. Sixty years without success for the country that created the game. For the French, it’s been over forty years since their last male Tour de France winner. They can’t find a way to win their own race.
Neither country is short of talent. Neither is short of money, infrastructure, or fans. All they’re short of is winning the thing that matters. And every few years, someone comes along who makes the whole nation believe this could be the year.
For France, that someone is Paul Seixas. Nineteen years old and racing his first Tour de France, he’s already carrying the weight of a nation. Alaphilippe made them ask “what if” in 2019 with that magnificent two weeks in yellow. Before him, Bardet’s back-to-back podiums in 2016 and 2017 were close, but a million miles from yellow.
Paul Seixas will not win the Tour de France this year, but the French are back to believing. I know the deal, because I’m English and there’s a World Cup on. At the time of writing, England are two games from history. Two games is close enough to start believing it could happen, but as I know all too well, it is the hope that kills you.
This World Cup has been brilliant. After Qatar and Russia, the bar for a host nation was low. There were many questions going into the US World Cup, and Trump proved once again that he’s world-class at making everything about himself. But football has prevailed - sport is bigger than it all, and will bring people together.
It’s been a World Cup of superstars. Haaland was Norway’s main man. Kane and Bellingham are carrying England. Mbappé is ruling for France. Messi for Argentina. That’s how sport works, you rely on your biggest players in your biggest games, and there is no bigger prize in sport than the World Cup.
Why is it, though, that some of these superstars are different in a national shirt? Mbappé at Real Madrid is not the same player as Mbappé for France.
I think the difference is that you can’t transfer away from your country. When you pull on that national team shirt, you’re not representing an owner or a sponsor. You’re representing millions of people watching at home. A flag does something a badge can’t. That thing has a name. Purpose.
Which brings me back to cycling. Professional cycling teams don’t have flags, but many have a culture deeply rooted in a country. Visma is Dutch. Movistar, Spanish. UNO-X, Norwegian. The same was once true of Team Sky. Those days are gone.
When they launched in 2010, Team Sky’s purpose was simple: win the Tour de France with a British rider within five years. Britain had never produced a Tour winner; ambition bordered on delusion. By 2012, it was Wiggins in yellow on the Champs-Élysées, and by 2018, Brits had won six of the last seven yellow jerseys.
The ‘British winner in five years’ goal wasn’t just marketing; it was the operating system the team ran on. It told them who to hire, what to sacrifice, and where to focus resources. Only three of the eight riders in that 2012 Tour line-up were British, but two of them went first and second overall. The third was Mark Cavendish. He won three stages in the rainbow jersey, including the final stage on the Champs-Élysées. The team’s core was undeniably British.
Fifteen years later, ask what NetCompany - INEOS exists to do. Take your time. I’ll wait.
Britain will never again reach the dizzy heights of 2012. The country was drunk on Olympic success. Wiggins winning their first Tour de France, before backing it up with a home Olympic Gold, meant cycling was in the national spotlight.
But the part that stings is that Team Sky’s success created a golden generation of British riders. Today, Great Britain has 33 WorldTour and 15 ProConti riders; in 2010, those numbers were 14 and 3.
One of Team Sky’s biggest mistakes was being too late to build a development team. Talent fled to the continent, and by the time that generation came of WorldTour age, the team had seemingly abandoned its British roots, and with it, the riders it should have built around.
Imagine the alternative - a British superteam stacked with the very riders its own success produced. These days, it feels like the team’s hiring policy changes with the wind. Once upon a time, the whole country got behind Team Sky. How many people are NetCompany - INEOS fans?
The England football team knows something about this. For a decade, the national team looked like a group that couldn’t care less. Players cared more for club than country. That changed under Gareth Southgate’s management. He took over at the lowest point and rebuilt the one thing that was missing. Not the players’ talent, but the team’s culture. Southgate’s no longer at the helm, but his work means the country is back to believing.
A team’s culture can be rebuilt. It just has to remember why it started in the first place.
Seixas will give France hope for the next decade. Kane and Bellingham will bring England hope this week. It’s the hope that kills you. The only thing worse is a team nobody hopes for.
While you’re here…
I’ve added a paid subscription and a ‘Buy Me A Coffee’ link to this post. This allows me to write articles that don’t necessarily fit in at one of the normal outlets. Thanks for your support.
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/joelaverick
The following brands are either financial or equipment partners of mine, and allow me to do cool stuff.
interesting read!
"the part that stings is that Team Sky’s success created a golden generation of British riders. Today, Great Britain has 33 WorldTour and 15 ProConti riders; in 2010, those numbers were 14 and 3."
That doesn't sting at all! (for me.) It's great that British riders have been able to establish themselves in the pro peloton. I couldn't care less about having a team that's (kinda) British. Especially not INEOS... who'd have thought Murdoch would be succeeded by an even less sympathetic tycoon?
What stings a bit is Dan Martin and Ben Healy choosing the Irish flag due to the rigidities of the British Cycling system. But that's not a topic I know or understand much about.