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Judge rejects Unibet's appeal to race Paris-Nice

By Agence France Presse
Published: Mar. 9, 2007

Unibet.com has failed in an appeal to have Paris-Nice race organizers include them in the field for this year's race, a source told AFP on Friday.

The Belgian-Swedish cycling team is one of 20 ProTour teams that are supposed to have guaranteed admittance to all ProTour races.

However, ASO, the company that runs Paris-Nice and the Tour de France among other events, refused to comply with UCI rules and opted not to invite Unibet.com to the Race to the Sun, which begins with a prologue on Sunday.

"We began a procedure at the Nanterre (Paris region) court to try to be included in the Paris-Nice race, but the judge threw it out," said team spokesman Manuel De Smet.

Unibet.com cannot take part in races on French soil due to a ban on betting advertising in the country.

The move to exclude the team led ASO to become embroiled in a dispute with the UCI that only came to a conclusion earlier this week, although not to the satisfaction of Unibet.com.

The UCI and the organizers of the three major tours agreed that 18 of the ProTour teams would receive automatic invitations to all races organized by the trio. In addition, they agreed, the last two ProTour teams, Unibet.com and Astana, should be given preferential consideration, although they would receive no guarantees as regards participation.