Teams split from UCI's ProTour series
PAU, France: Cycling split between its governing body and private organizers on Tuesday after the ProTour teams said they were leaving the UCI's elite series.
"It has been decided unanimously not to renew the ProTour licences for the 2009 season," the 17 ProTour teams on the Tour de France said in a joint statement.
The International Cycling Union (UCI) has been at odds with the three big Tour organizers - the Tour de France, Vuelta and Giro - since they refused to be part of the ProTour series, which guarantees top teams a place in the prestigious races.
The Astana team, which was not invited to take part in the Tour because of its past doping record, is also set to join the move away from the elite series.
"If everybody decides so, I can't imagine Astana will not follow," said the team's chief press officer Philippe Maertens.
Quick Step manager Patrick Lefevere added: "I'm very happy. I hope the UCI will talk to the teams and organizers".
Bouygues Telecom manager Jean-Rene Berneaudea said: "The problem is that we were sold a product (the ProTour) which is not the one we got.
"That's the origin of the conflict. What matters today for my sponsors is a participation in the three big Tours."
UCI president Pat McQuaid said Tour de France organizers Amaury Sport Organization (ASO) wanted to create its own private league outside the governing body's regulations.
"It is obvious they are going to join ASO's dissident federation," McQuaid told Reuters.
"We'll deal with that according to the regulations - they face exclusion from the international federation. It is something we are going to discuss."
Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme told Reuters: "It's an opportunity all the families in cycling have to grab to set up a new system that works.
"Everybody has to work on it, including the UCI. Nobody wants out of the governing body."
Vuelta and Giro d'Italia organizers, Unipublic and RCS, also refused to be part of the ProTour, which started in 2005 under the UCI's jurisdiction.
ASO owns the Paris-Nice stage race and Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Paris-Roubaix classics. RCS also organizes the Milan-San Remo classic with Unipublic running the Tour of Murcia.
Other race organizers were worried about their events.
"If it happens, 30 percent of the teams' staff will be without a job," Thierry Cazeneuve, organizer of the Dauphine Libere, told Reuters.
"It means that the 150,000 euros ($239,300) guaranteed to the teams by their sponsors for being in the ProTour will be taken back."
Richard Chassot, the Tour of Romandie director, told Reuters: "It's bad news for cycling and teams who will have to reduce their staff.
"If the three big Tour organizers share the cake between them, they have enough races without us. We might as well die."
Agencies
(China Daily 07/17/2008 page23)
