The globally integrated enterprise, by contrast, has swapped national silos for global teams, drawing on the best talent wherever it may be.
But none were built in markets the size of New York, which, last season, supported two teams drawing more than four million.
The goal, said Quéguiner, is that the professional team would be the top of the French cycling pyramid, but – unlike the country's current teams – drawing riders from all disciplines.
In World Cups before 1990, 37 players were sent off from teams drawing or losing, and none improved their result; since then there have been 80, of which 12 have improved.
The Spaniards triumphed, 4-2, on aggregate in last season's round of 16, and the two teams also met in the group stage the year before, with Barcelona winning, 3-2, Italyand and the teams drawing in Spain, 2-2.
Australia and Sri Lanka aside, a great deal of the cricket, involving ostensibly world-class teams, drawing on greater coaching resources than at any stage in the game's history, brought to concert pitch by psychologists, physiotherapists, sports scientists, ghost writers and spiritual gurus, was... well... pretty mediocre.
