Istill haven’t pinned on a race number since the French championships at the end of June, but that hasn’t stopped me from following the cycling news closely. And what I’m seeing about the future of the Conti and ProTeams worries me a bit. Apart from Alpecin-Fenix, which is the exception that proves the rule, the teams of the second and third divisions are struggling to hold their own. The time when a team like my old one, Europcar, could compete seems a long time ago. The gap between the WorldTour teams and the rest of the peloton has widened over the past two years.