What do you guys think of the UCIs threat.....

[widget]

........to punish Pro Tour teams who decide to race in the upcoming Paris - Nice event.??

 

For those who dont know its because of the long standing dispute between ASO (the organisers of this event and the TDF) and the UCI who dropped this event (mainly out of spite it is suggested) from the Pro Tour calender.

 

I can only see this heading towards a clash to see who is more powerfull, as many of the top teams have already said they will defy the UCI ruling, the federations of most of the main European countries have said they will send people to assist ASO with anything they need, and individual riders have expressed a wish to ride this event as it is steeped in history, its a prestigeous event to win and they use it a a warm up for the upcoming season.

 

Quite frankly, my opinion is the UCI can never win this kind of argument, the ASO are superb organisers (they run many events not only cycling but the Paris - Dakar motor cycling endurance event, the Paris marathon and various other prestigeous events) they own the rights to some of the best and most well known cycling events in the world, which all pro cyclists and teams want to ba a part of, so they really dont need the UCI anyway, although they have expressly stated they are prepared to work hand in hand but will not be dictated to. 

widget2007-03-01 01:25:54

[Cruxpearl]

As I see it, UCI is trying to use the Protour to get their greedy little hands on a lot of ASO commercial rights for the races that are included in the Protour.

ASO is saying: P--ss off, we built these races up, why should we give away our commercial rights, and (IMHO) rightly so.

UCI is using bullying tactics to try and force the issue...

ASO owns 11 of the 27 races that makes up the Protour, including Paris Rubaix & tour de France...

How pissed off is Protpour teams gonna be if they are not to be allowed to race the Tour or Hell of the North...

How damaging in the end to the Protour wrt sponsors etc, etc,

The tour will go on, and will have a winner, might not ge a Protour guy, so who loses out in the end by the UCI being pig assed???

Riders & UCI

[widget]

Absolutely Cruxpearl, there is no way ASO will allow the UCI to muscle in on their events.

 

The UCI knows this, they also know the ASO organisation is a massive concern with very deep pockets, so they have started to try and get their hands on the funds of the smaller events like the Vuelta, but when ASO backed RCI (Vuelta organisers) against the UCI, in spite they threatened to shorten the VUELTA or move the Tour of Germany to a time frame which clashes with the Vuelta, however there has been a unified response from all three grand tour organisers that they will not accept this, and, have made an application to the European Commission as to the validity of the Pro- Tour legality anyway.

 

Expect that in court soon.!!

 

To quote Mr Cordero of RCI "There is no longer any kind of a working relationship between the UCI and any of the organisers of the grand tours ."   

widget2007-03-01 01:50:03

[splat]

All this fighting makes Cycling SA look positively boring and totally organised!

[widget]

All this fighting makes Cycling SA look positively boring and totally organised!

 

 - but we know better eh??

[cyclemania]

Crux and widget is correct. Lots of smaller races also want to see the Pro Tour go. In the past they had big riders riding in smaller events but with the ProTour the just cannot becuase of the jam packed calender as it is now. The smaller teams also don't get to races with larger teams that much.