Anyone else following this? Looks as if the tussle between the UCI and Amaury Sports is coming to a head. Personally, I back Amaury in this - the UCI has to accept responsibility for the mess cycling is in. Every year it gets worse and it's destroying the sport. The UCI has proven itself incapable of cleaning up the sport. Sponsors are leaving, cycling's reputation is in the gutter, and something needs to change. I bet that if the split affects the Tour, the UCI will discover that they have made themselves irrelevant. People want to see the Tour, and if the UCI turns it into an us-or-them confrontation, I bet they'll find that no-one gives a damn what the UCI says - Le Tour is the thing.
Do you know of a relevant link...so I don't need to Google?
This was on the BBC this morning - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/cycling/7264072.stm (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/cycling/7264072.stm)
Is it about this - "[UCI] threatening to withdraw anti-doping regulators..."? Or what? Why is the UCI being such a hardass?
What a joke - as if the UCI and their anti-doping regimen has had any effect...
It's all about power and money. Amaury is concerned that UCI's mismanagement is killing the sport. A legitimate concern, methinks. Amaury wants to take control of the races they own and have them run under French cycling and government authority. UCI doesn't want to see themselves sidelined, so they're threatening to sanction anyone who rides in an Amaury event. The way I see it, the UCI is more concerned with the financial future of the UCI than it is with the health of the sport, and the sport is suffering as a result. Let's face it - what does the UCI actually contribute? Their raison d'etre was regulation and oversight, and they've clearly demonstrated they're incapable of doing the job. So what is the point in kowtowing to them? Like I said, I think this latest stance of theirs will just hasten the day everyone realizes the UCI is impotent and a threat to the sport.
Sounds like your rationale is correct. I haven't followed it, but I see what you're saying.
Quote from: Pat McQuaidThe UCI trusts that the teams will refuse to take part in Paris-Nice, as, regardless of the sanctions to which they would be subject, such participation would compromise the image and stability of cycling.
does this guy have any functioning synapses? the image of cycling?: junkies in tight shorts (and i don't follow cycling, except glancingly three weeks a year, like most people)
Quote from: MooseDog on February 27, 2008, 07:29:12 PM
the image of cycling?: junkies in tight shorts
:D :D Great... really, though. Apparently that's the image the UCI is trying to preserve.