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ProTour battle reaches boiling point as national federations call for independent panel
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The ongoing conflict between cycling's international governing body and major race organizers has prompted six national federations to call for the urgent creation of a working group ahead of key major races.
With the symbolic start to the season at Paris-Nice on March 11, riders and teams have been caught in the middle of a tit-for-tat feud which has escalated to potentially dangerous levels.
The Union Cycliste Internationale and three top organizers have been battling since the creation of the ProTour, cycling’s top-tier racing schedule. The companies, which organize the Tour de France, Vuelta a España and Giro d’Italia, control nearly half of the 27-race ProTour calendar.
Recently, the UCI filed an unfair business practices complaint against three with the European Commission after the organizers continued to maintain that they were not obligated to invite all ProTour teams to their events. The three organizers - ASO (France), RCS (Italy) and Unipublic (Spain) – have repeatedly declared that they are not part of the ProTour.
That decision, said the UCI, effectively made Paris-Nice a “national” race, held under the auspices of the French federation. As a result, the UCI threatened any ProTour teams taking part in the race with sanctions, since ProTour rules prohibit those teams from participating in “national” events.
"If you decide, against the rules, to take part in Paris-Nice, you will be heavily penalized," UCI president Pat McQuaid wrote in a letter sent to ProTour squads.
The decision has left many ProTour teams – particularly the French – caught on the horns of a dilemma.
"If we cannot race, we are consequently not allowed to do our job," Cofidis team manager Eric Boyer told EuroSport.
Consequently, Cofidis joined Rabobank, T-Mobile, Gerolsteiner, Bouygues Telecom and Francaise des Jeux in calling the UCI’s bluff last Friday and declaring its intention to participate in Paris-Nice. Other teams have said that they intend to abide by the ruling and forego plans to race in the week-long season opener.
On Thursday, the national cycling federations of Austria, Belgium, Spain, France, Italy and Luxembourg called for the creation of an independent panel to resolve an issue which is threatening to leave cycling in a rut.
"It is urgent that a working group be created from among the national federations concerned but independent of those currently involved in the conflict over the UCI ProTour," a letter from the federations said. "Its aim will be to hold discussions with all those involved in cycling and to formulate short and medium term solutions that are acceptable to all."
"According to its own regulations, one of the UCI's objectives is 'toencourage friendship between all members of the cycling world'," the letteradded. "If that is the case, how can (the UCI) stand in the way of teams, ridersand race officials who want to participate in one of the major races on thecalendar?"
It remains to be seen if and when a resolution can be reached, however itseems both warring parties are intent on digging their heels in.
McQuaid on Wednesday reiterated threats of "heavy sanctions," while Thursday ASO fired back by suggesting that teams which do not race Paris-Nice may not be invited to other ASO-organized events, including the Tour de France. "If these teams refuse to come to Paris-Nice, then they will have taken the same stance on our other races,” ASO chief Patrice Clerc told a Belgian newspaper. "If that’s the case, I don't see why we should invite them to the Tour de France. I will only reconsider this if they have a very good reason to skip Paris-Nice."
