McQuaid tells the ASO to follow the rules or get out the UCI

Bro Deal

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"You are like the wind and I like the lion. You form the tempest. The sand stings my eyes and the ground is parched. I roar in defiance but you do not hear. But between us there is a difference. I, like the lion, must remain in my place. While you like the wind will never know yours." -- Mulay Hamid El Raisuli, Lord of the Riff, Sultan to the Berbers, Last of the Barbary Pirates

TheDarkLord

Not a word about High Road; only about Astana. Wonder how much $$ Bruyneel gave McQuaid.

Bro Deal

This is what I posted over at DP:

It comes down to money. If the TdF does not invite some of the ProTour teams then those teams' ProTour licenses are not worth anything; they might come looking for a refund. Since McQuaid already spent the money on cheap booze and cheaper hookers, he cannot give it back.

I thinik that about sums up why the UCI is so adament about the TdF inviting all the ProTour teams but not the other GTs.

__________________
"You are like the wind and I like the lion. You form the tempest. The sand stings my eyes and the ground is parched. I roar in defiance but you do not hear. But between us there is a difference. I, like the lion, must remain in my place. While you like the wind will never know yours." -- Mulay Hamid El Raisuli, Lord of the Riff, Sultan to the Berbers, Last of the Barbary Pirates

cyclingheroes

Oh yes.... Unibet will also sue Paddy's club....

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Bro Deal

Unibet was stupid. They knew that France had changed their gambling laws and they knew that the GTs were only going to recognize eightteen teams for 2007.

Confucious say, If you stick your head in the jaws of a tiger, don't be surprised when you lose it.

__________________
"You are like the wind and I like the lion. You form the tempest. The sand stings my eyes and the ground is parched. I roar in defiance but you do not hear. But between us there is a difference. I, like the lion, must remain in my place. While you like the wind will never know yours." -- Mulay Hamid El Raisuli, Lord of the Riff, Sultan to the Berbers, Last of the Barbary Pirates

poulidor

Yesterday he sucked Hein, now he sucks Pat!

poulidor

I don't remember that we have changet the law about gambling... For me it was always under control of authority. And sport betting are illegal too.

Unibet had no choice... if they had wanted to sue, France could had closed Unibet internet address... they would have lost more money! I think it was more a failure of team management than Unibet company.

Crankyfeet

Unibet probably knew all along they were probably going to be left out. It was a no-lose stunt. They probably got more publicity by being excluded.

As much as all this anarchy seems fun and some of our favorite bad-ass teams are getting their butts kicked and the UCI is running around completely flustered... this whole arbitrary invite thing is very, very, very bad for the sport of cycling IMO. Dopers are rife. To single out Bruyneel, Astana, High Road, or whoever is just playing a petty personal vengeance game. How are these teams going to get invited in the future? Three years in minor events without a blemish?

The sport needs black and white policy in this time of turmoil. Teams need to be able to read the manual and understand what actions cause what consequences. This subjective "We don't like you so we're not inviting you this year" game is bullshit.

I think we all are for the sport of cycling. That, for most of us, I think, means going on the full offensive against doping. This policy however IMO is not going to have a great deal of effect eradicating doping... but it is going to have a huge effect in helping more money flow out of the sport.

Bro Deal

Maybe it was just a change in the willingness to enforce the old law. In 2006 two executives of Bwin Interactive were arrested for appearing at a news conferance to announce a sponsorship deal with a soccer club. There were those race organizers who were taken into custody for an offense against the gambling law.

The gambling issue always seemed like a convenient cover story for the ASO.

Unibet wagered on the UCI to overcome the objections of the GTs to being forced to invite twenty teams. They lost the bet. They should take the loss like a man, the same way they expect their own customers to accept their losses.

__________________
"You are like the wind and I like the lion. You form the tempest. The sand stings my eyes and the ground is parched. I roar in defiance but you do not hear. But between us there is a difference. I, like the lion, must remain in my place. While you like the wind will never know yours." -- Mulay Hamid El Raisuli, Lord of the Riff, Sultan to the Berbers, Last of the Barbary Pirates

TheDarkLord

The true losers in this whole tug of war probably were the cyclists who signed up with Unibet.

Bro Deal

The previous system was not bad. The top sixteen teams got invites, and there were up to six wildcards. Then the UCI began plotting to take over the earth...

__________________
"You are like the wind and I like the lion. You form the tempest. The sand stings my eyes and the ground is parched. I roar in defiance but you do not hear. But between us there is a difference. I, like the lion, must remain in my place. While you like the wind will never know yours." -- Mulay Hamid El Raisuli, Lord of the Riff, Sultan to the Berbers, Last of the Barbary Pirates

Crankyfeet

I get it. So RCS and ASO (perhaps...we'll see) get to fark up the UCI's Pro Tour by leaving out some top teams. Wonderful. UCI should have known better trying to get involved in changing the staus quo and trying to grow the sport outside of its primarily Eurocentric roots. I am not in favor of UCI getting involved in sports promotion neccesarily... but the sport needs to grow beyond its existing boundaries IMO. And it is never going to do that without assistance from an independent body from the current stakeholders in events.

Yes UCI are bad for hiding the doping secret and now pretending that the fault is all with the cyclists. They are bad for not sticking to their own ules in the Rasmussen case. They are bad for their machiavellian ways. But if we try to take UCI down folks. Cycling is history IMO. We need to change the UCI and its charter perhaps. Not destroy it. Just my 2c.

Frigo's Luggage

I am rooting for ASO.

This is a big bluff by the UCI. They need the grand tours. The grand tours don't need them. If the grand tours got together and formed a league, the schedule would include:

• Tour of Qatar
• Paris-Nice
• Critérium International
• Paris-Roubaix
• Flèche Wallonne
• Liège-Bastogne-Liège
• Tour de Picardie
• Tour de France
• Tour de l'Avenir
• Paris-Tours
• Tour du Faso
• Milan San Remo
• Tirreno Adratico
• Lombardia
• Giro
• Vuelta
• Valencia
• Murcia
• Semana Catalana

I think these are all owned by the grand tours. Someone will correct me if I am wrong.

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Bro Deal

The proper way to do that is by negotiation with all concerned parties. Instead the UCI tried to force everyone to go along with its plan. I think Vebruggen's term was "the train is leaving the station and everyone needs to get on board." The UCI's arrogance and incompetence screwed up the ProTour.

Basic questions like whether the ProTour would be an open or closed system were never discussed with the race organizers. The organizers wanted an open system more like the previous World Cup one, where most invites were based on a team's performance and teams could rise or fall from the list of top teams. The UCI wanted teams to essentially be able to buy their way into events.

To make matters worse the UCI kept saying the ProTour isn't perfect and we will tweak the rules, but they wanted to wait until the first ProTour contracts were finished--four years, which is insane. After new teams signed or reupped, teh UCI was then saying they needed to wait until 2012. And this was after they had conned the GTs in temporarily accepting the ProTour teams by saying they would get together and address the problems at the end of the first season, a promise the UCI broke when McQuaid refused to meet with GTs. It's been one stupid mistep and another for the UCI and ProTour.

It would be nice if the sport could grow into new markets and increase the money available, but the ProTour is not the way to do it. Growing outside of europe will be very difficult with the number of important european races. It is not an easy problem. It is something that needs to be approached with a great deal of thought.

__________________
"You are like the wind and I like the lion. You form the tempest. The sand stings my eyes and the ground is parched. I roar in defiance but you do not hear. But between us there is a difference. I, like the lion, must remain in my place. While you like the wind will never know yours." -- Mulay Hamid El Raisuli, Lord of the Riff, Sultan to the Berbers, Last of the Barbary Pirates