An inaugural member of the UCI Athletes Commission in 2011, Bernie Eisel was re-elected in September with a 71 per cent majority. The Austrian on Dimension Data has been one of the more outspoken riders in the peloton regarding the safety of his colleagues, aiming to create a safer and more financially viable sport.
With two young children, Eisel decided to step down from his role on the commission, but having since been repeatedly asked to resume, the 36-year-old explained his return to Cyclingnews.
"Now it is getting towards the end of my career, I had a lot of people asking me to do it and so I was like,'OK, I liked doing it but I wasn't really happy with the outcome when I was in the PPC [Professional Cycling Council],'" Eisel explained to Cyclingnews at the recent Tour of Guangxi.
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"At the same time, I have heard too many riders in the past say, 'Why are you doing this? It will never change'. But change happens if you push for it, and we have seen a lot of change in the sport. Probably not always in the favour of the riders. At the same time, teams can't be happy with how it is at the moment."
Expanding upon his reasoning, Eisel said the status quo is not sustainable for riders, sponsors, or organisers, and rather than simply complain, he is being proactive and trying to force positive change.
"We need a better structure of financing and we still talk about 85-90 per cent of team budget coming from one sponsor, and this is just not a good model of financing or having a stable budget," he said.
The changing peloton
We're not a circus
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