The gulf in team budgets is having a negative impact on fans' enjoyment of cycling, according to the results of a survey conducted by the sport's governing body the UCI.
The UCI survey was completed by 22,300 fans from 134 countries as part of an effort to identify ways of improving the viewability of cycling around the globe. A full 76% of respondents agreed with the view that 'the difference in budget between teams can make races less interesting'.
It also found that 71% of respondents believe that the concentration of the best riders in a select number of teams also negatively impacts the quality of entertainment.
Over half said they agreed with the statement that 'the outcome of races is predictable', although 84% said they nonetheless felt road racing is 'exciting to follow'.
Alongside the disparity in team budgets, the two other most commonly mentioned issues raised by fans of road racing were the use of earpieces and the use of power meters by riders during races.
All three of these issues have already been identified by UCI president David Lappartient as being under consideration since the Frenchman's election into power in 2017.
Lappartient has already overseen the reduction of team sizes in races in an attempt to curb lessen the dominance of the peloton's richest teams, such as Team Ineos, at Grand Tours and major one-day races.
The UCI is also considering implementing a budget cap to help combat the inequality in spending across cycling's top tier, although nothing has come to fruition as yet.
Team Ineos, who have won seven of the last eight editions of the Tour de France, operate on an annual budget of around €40 million.
For perspective, that's over double that of Jumbo-Visma, the only other team besides Team Ineos to make it onto the podium for the general classification at this year's Tour de France.
But while riders all racing for the same team is a concern for viewers of the sport, fans don't lay the blame for this with the riders themselves.
Fans readily associate terms such as 'heroes' (37%), 'bravery' (56%) and excitement (58%) with riders, while 70% said they believed cycling was 'easy to understand'.
The same survey also identified Peter Sagan as the most popular rider in the peloton, followed by Julian Alaphilippe and Vincenzo Nibali. Notably, no female riders were cited.
Unsurprisingly, respondents identified hilly races and races with unpaved sections as their favourites with over half also claiming that the optimal length of a stage race is between six and eight days.
A majority of those surveyed said they watch racing on television while 40% claimed that would like the opportunity to watch races in full, 63% said they wanted to see more coverage from within the team car during the race and a similar number would like the chance to watch team preparations pre-race.
Lappartient commented on the survey noting that while coverage of the sport is generally well-received, there is room for improvement in terms of the excitement in racing.
'There is room for improvement, such as making more information and data available during broadcasts and that serious thought should be given to aspects seen as potentially damaging to the appeal of road cycling (domination by a small number of teams or the use of radio communications for instance),' said Lappartient.
'We are continuing with our consultation work and process of reflection with a view to making road cycling even more attractive: the working group looking into this has already met once, and its members will meet again in the near future; in parallel, interviews with different stakeholders continue.
'A series of proposals will be drawn upon this basis and put before the Professional Cycling Council and the UCI Management Committee for their approval in 2020.'