New era of cooperation for cycling?
Cycling's top organisations met in Liège, Belgium. (L-R): Christian Prudhomme, Harald Knebel, Jean Rene Bernadeu, Pat McQuaid, Alain Rumpf, Jonathan Vaughters, Philippe Senmartin, Roberto Amadio, Angelo Zomgenan and Patrick Lefevre. (Lucas J. Gilman)
For the first time in four rocky years, the leaders of cycling's major race organisations sat down together in what could be the first step in a lasting peace between race organisers and the sport's governing body, the International Cycling Union (UCI).
UCI president Pat McQuaid and the ProTour director Alain Rumpf met with Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme, Giro d'Italia director Angelo Zomegnan and representatives from the Association International des Groupes Cyclistes Professionels (AIGCP) at the Holiday Inn in Liège.
The two sides, which have been divided over the UCI's ProTour since its inception in 2004, were called together by AIGCP president and Garmin-Slipstream director sportif Jonathan Vaughters. While the meeting started off tense, Vaughters told Cyclingnews it ended on a positive note.
"We got things off to a good start," Vaughters said. "I was certainly afraid the various sides wouldn't see eye to eye, but it wasn't like that at all."
"There have been a couple pretty tense years - sometimes it takes a while to get everyone back on the same page. It was tense at the start of the meeting, but by the end it was very jovial."
The goal of the meeting was simple: to get the teams, UCI and race organisers to start a dialogue on solving the sport's issues and increase the sport's profile and popularity worldwide. The outcome was that all three sides committed to monthly meetings each of which will focus on critical items affecting the future of the sport including the biological passport and entry into key events.
During the meeting, all sides were allowed to air their concerns. Vaughters said the discussions "killed a lot of suspicion and rumors" that have plagued the sport. "All in all, everyone came away with it feeling that [each side] was well-intentioned and honest."
Eye on the prize
Vaughters said one of the main goals of this new cooperation is "to get clarity in how Grand Tour teams are selected - that there's a clear path that teams and fans can understand."
In 2004, the UCI attempted to compose a system under the ProTour in which all of the sport's top teams would be guaranteed entry into the biggest races. But that model failed to garner the agreement of the Grand Tour organisers. In 2007, the organisers refused to allow the ProTour Unibet.com team entry into any of their races.
In 2008, the Astana team was refused entry into the Tour de France and other Amaury Sports Organisation (ASO) events because in the previous year, it had several doping positives during the Tour. The same criteria was applied this year to the former Saunier-Duval team, Fuji-Servetto.
Vaughters explained that the fight against doping, in particular the UCI's biological passport, is one of the key issues for race organisers.
"Organisers want teams that they feel confident in, that will not hurt the image of their event. Teams, of course, want assurances that they will be able to participate in the events their sponsors want and need them to race in."
"The UCI needs to manage the whole process and govern all the different procedures and enforce the rules as they're written."
Vaughters clarified that there will be no changes to the selection process until the 2011 season, after the contract between the teams and the ASO, which was signed last year, expires.
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That contract was signed at the height of the war between the UCI and the ASO, when the Tour organiser decided to hold its races outside the control of the sport's governing body. It was later accepted into the UCI's regulations after a peace deal was brokered with ASO owner Editions Philippe Amaury last fall.
After years of plenty of conflict but very little discussion on how to solve it, Vaughters is looking forward to a continuing discussion and progress toward making the sport better.
"We're planning the next meeting, possibly during one of the rest days of the Giro d'Italia," he said. "The biggest thing that came out of the meeting is that the UCI, race organisers and teams will meet on a regular basis to air concerns and move the ball forward. It has to be a continuous process."
Cyclingnews will cover the 95th Liège-Bastogne-Liège live on April 26 at 13:00 local Europe time (CEST)/ 21:00 Australian time (CDT)/ 7:00 (USA East)
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User Comments
There are 2 comments on this post
Showing 1 - 2 of 2 comments
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mylesrants
Posted Sat 25 Apr, 9:01 am BST Flag as inappropriate
Open letter to Mr. Pat Mc Quaid, President of the UCI.
Firstly, may I congratulate you on the efforts to rid our wonderful
sport of the cheats and their suppliers who continue to bring cycling into disrepute.
With major scientific advances in drug-testing procedures, coupled with the
mainstream global desire for a new start, we can visualize an era of
clean, real cycle sport.
Professional Cycling has undergone frequent scandals from the use of performance enhancing products; it is stigmatized as being dirty and therefore
we must take the lead, for all sports, in the prevention of this in
the future.
BikePure is an umbrella group of fans, riders, media and the cycle to protect the integrity and the potential of cycle sport. Through the declarations of thousands of our members, we have compiled a list of recommendations,
which we believe would improve the efficiency of the testing system by creating clarity and restoring trust within the doping agencies.
Bike Pure is the voice of the masses and we feel that the governing
bodies should take on board the feelings and wishes of the governed. We fully understand you have a hard and complex job and wish to assist in every possible way. With 5 current UCI world champions and an affiliate base from over 50 countries, BikePure’s commitment and voice is steadfast and positive.
Our proposals to assist with the clean up of cycling:
1. Introduction and immediate implementation of a blanked, fixed four-year ban from competition for any doping offence.
2. Introduction of life bans for anyone caught doping for the second time.
3. Life bans for management and team personnel working with cyclists to
Assist doping practices.
4. Strict adherence to the rulebook and a time limit of 4 weeks to be set
from sample taken to test result, inclusive of ruling.
5. Unification of all countries testing authorities under the UCI banner,
meaning that any doping infringements in a single country will have automatic
effect globally.
6. A standardization of testing procedures under WADA, to be enforced in
each area.
7. Fully open results of the Bio-Passport program online and listed
infringement penalties.
We hope this meets with your approval and we look forward to a response in
the near future.
www.bikepure.org
Support clean/real riders
-
mylesrants
Posted Sat 25 Apr, 9:01 am BST Flag as inappropriate
Open letter to Mr. Pat Mc Quaid, President of the UCI.
Firstly, may I congratulate you on the efforts to rid our wonderful
sport of the cheats and their suppliers who continue to bring cycling into disrepute.
With major scientific advances in drug-testing procedures, coupled with the
mainstream global desire for a new start, we can visualize an era of
clean, real cycle sport.
Professional Cycling has undergone frequent scandals from the use of performance enhancing products; it is stigmatized as being dirty and therefore
we must take the lead, for all sports, in the prevention of this in
the future.
BikePure is an umbrella group of fans, riders, media and the cycle to protect the integrity and the potential of cycle sport. Through the declarations of thousands of our members, we have compiled a list of recommendations,
which we believe would improve the efficiency of the testing system by creating clarity and restoring trust within the doping agencies.
Bike Pure is the voice of the masses and we feel that the governing
bodies should take on board the feelings and wishes of the governed. We fully understand you have a hard and complex job and wish to assist in every possible way. With 5 current UCI world champions and an affiliate base from over 50 countries, BikePure’s commitment and voice is steadfast and positive.
Our proposals to assist with the clean up of cycling:
1. Introduction and immediate implementation of a blanked, fixed four-year ban from competition for any doping offence.
2. Introduction of life bans for anyone caught doping for the second time.
3. Life bans for management and team personnel working with cyclists to
Assist doping practices.
4. Strict adherence to the rulebook and a time limit of 4 weeks to be set
from sample taken to test result, inclusive of ruling.
5. Unification of all countries testing authorities under the UCI banner,
meaning that any doping infringements in a single country will have automatic
effect globally.
6. A standardization of testing procedures under WADA, to be enforced in
each area.
7. Fully open results of the Bio-Passport program online and listed
infringement penalties.
We hope this meets with your approval and we look forward to a response in
the near future.
www.bikepure.org
Support clean/real riders
