ASO response to UCI threat...

[Cruxpearl]

On Wednesday, UCI president Pat McQuaid re-iterated that the ProTour teams were not allowed to participate in the upcoming Paris-Nice stage race as it will this year be a national event, and threatened them with "heavy sanctions" if they chose to start. One day later, it's Tour de France organiser ASO's turn to threaten the teams - this time going one step further: the participation in Paris-Nice might affect the teams' entry in all ASO-organised events, including the Tour de France.

Patrice Clerc, ASO president, has now made rumours come true and retaliated, saying that he might consider not inviting the teams to the Tour de France if they chose not to come to Paris-Nice. Speaking to the Telegraaf, Clerc commented, "All 18 teams reacted promptly when they received our invitation. If they cancel their participation now, it's because they're not allowed to start under the pressure of the UCI. If these teams now refuse to come to Paris-Nice, then they will have the same stance on our other competitions. In that case, I don't see why I should invite them to the Tour. I will only reconsider this if they have a very good reason to call off Paris-Nice."

 

 

Oh Bugger, Hier kom groot kakkamarakkas!!!!!

Will have to let Jaco; Spidey & the boys know, we might be off to do the TdF in July!!!!

Now where did I put Patrice's number???

[mallo]

Crux to make it more authentic tell Patrice you are BEEE compliant and take me along as your bike wash boy.

[Cruxpearl]

 Deal!!!!

[widget]

Wonderfull response from ASO - what did the UCI expect them to do??

 

Roll over and capitulate??

 

Will never happen, ASO has every right to make a stand, although as most of the teams have said they will defy the UCI threat and compete in the Paris /Nice anyway it looks fairly open and shut in ASO s favour to me anyway.

 

Watch this space.......................!!

[TitusTi]

Glad to see it's not just this country's sport that is dominated by politics.

[Bateleur1]

Crux, I will be the support car driver.  Already have the EU passport, no visa required for me (Well maybe one frome my wife but I am sure we can organise something).

[Beee]

Crux to make it more authentic tell Patrice you are BEEE compliant and take me along as your bike wash boy.

 

yip - so obviously moet ek ook saam, n?!

[Cruxpearl]

Wonderfull response from ASO - what did the UCI expect them to do??

 

Roll over and capitulate??

Can't agree with you more Widget
Would looove to see Pat McQuaid & the UCI eat some humble pie!!!

[Guest Big H]

Soek jy iemand om PAP te kom maak Crux..... ekke en M is al klaar halfpad Frankryk toe!!!!!!!!!

[knappy]

Pick me pick me... If I do 18hrs of training a day before June I should be ready to ride at least one day... 

[Christie]

The teams are under a lot of pressure to participate - they have sponsors to keep happy and must pay the rider's salaries. If they don't ride, the riders get paid for doing nothing. It looks like Tirreno-Adriatico will go the same route. But so far the big teams are backing the UCI - I wonder for how long?

I think the brute force approach by the UCI won't work with ASO holding all the cards for now.

[ShortLegs]

Someone explain why the UCI is in the wrong here when ASO refuse to let UNIBET (a valid Pro-Tour team) ride?

 

ShortLegs2007-03-01 17:47:33

[Christie]

Imo there is no wrong and right in this case. The problem is that the UCI is trying to imposing a structure on  road racing from the top down. The race organizers, who own the events, have now had enough and are going back to running the races in the way they want. The riders are also not happy with the protour.

Unibet is an unfortunate victim of the power struggle. UCI gave them a protour license, but the race organizers are saying they want to decide who to invite and who not. This is probably not a great system either, instead of paying big money to the UCI for a protour license a new/smaller team has to pay the race organizer for the favour of a wild card. The UCI's problem is that they have little say in the orginization of the races, so dont have that much leverage.

Christie2007-03-01 23:25:50

[widget]

Sure Christie, but thats really just the tip of the iceberg (the Astana / Unibet affair that is) there has been a long standing "tit for tat" reprisals between the two groups, with the grand tour organisers saying its their races (and between them they own probably 10 or 11 of the most coveted events on the calender) they have invested heavily in them and have the right to decide certain criteria.

 

The UCI has in retalliation threatened to move the calenders so events clash (tour of Germany / Vuelta), threatened to shorten the durations of events like the Vuelta,dictate to the organisers who may race (Astana / Unibet) or ban some of the events from the Pro Tour calender altogether (Paris / Nice). 

 

Personally, I cant see the UCI winning here either, the Pro Tour legality has been referred to the European Commission for validity, ASO and the other organisers have the backing of most of the European cycling federations who have offered to help, the cyclists themselves see these events as very prestigious on their "Palmares" and want to ride, and theres no pro team who dos not want to be involved in at least two of the three grand tours.

 

What team will risk loosing their invite to the TDF especially.? 

widget2007-03-02 01:27:34

[Christie]

The biggest lever the UCI can get is to convince the protour teams not to ride. This would deprive ASO & co. of the top riders in the events. The problems for the teams are: the riders want to ride, the riders get paid salaries and the sponsors want the riders to ride.

 

I cant see the UCI winning this one. I think this is the begining of the end for the protour.

[widget]

The biggest lever the UCI can get is to convince the protour teams not to ride. This would deprive ASO & co. of the top riders in the events. The problems for the teams are: the riders want to ride' date=' the riders get paid salaries and the sponsors want the riders to ride.

 

I cant see the UCI winning this one. I think this is the begining of the end for the protour.

[/quote']

 

Sure, I concur. There will be a lot of laying blame between the sides but in my opinion the UCI has done the most damage, they have only themselves to blame.

 

As Patric has said, if the teams dont want to ride Paris Nice because of the UCI attitude, then fine, the race will go ahead without them, but then they need to understand that he will then see it as they dont wish to be involved in any ASO events (I see there are 11 events owned by ASO alone including the TDF) and they wont be invited to any.

 

............and thats a serious problem for the teams.

 

Unfortunately, the teams are really the "ham in the sandwich" as it were, they would like to ride, of course, but they are worried about repercussions from the UCI - Sad,really isnt it.!