McQuaid Open Letter
Full text of letter from McQuaid in Le Monde, reprinted from VeloNews
Today, ASO directors decided that they would no longer comply with the UCI rules. How did we get to this point? The answer is simple: over and above our differences of opinion about the way professional cycling is organised, the very role of the UCI is being called into question by a body that sees it as an obstacle to its own ambitions.
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Let there be no mistake: ASO is a limited company, answerable only to its shareholders. The UCI, on the other hand, is a democratic supranational organisation that represents the interests of all those involved in cycling. Its revenues are used for the universal development of all disciplines of cycling.
In their attempt to gain power, while choosing not to exercise it in areas that do not interest them – unlike the UCI, ASO could not care less about defending anyone’s interests other than its own – ASO’s executives have accomplished quite a feat: they have created the belief that they are the Tour de France, and that opposing them is tantamount to attacking the Tour. This has enabled them to insinuate that anything that goes against ASO’s interests is a violation of France’s cycling heritage. This tricolour smokescreen must be cleared away. The Tour does not belong exclusively to the company that organises it: it also belongs to those who love it, and who are its raison d’être, which means, above all, the riders. Those who are passionate about cycling should be warned: agreeing to ASO’s demands would transform professional cycling into a league managed by the dominant organiser, rather than by an international organisation that represents the collective interest.
ASO is currently refusing to register Paris-Nice on a calendar decided through democratic process. It wants its events to take place outside the UCI rules, so that it can decide, by means of contracts, which rules will govern the teams. This has created an unstable situation with adverse effects on many of those involved. ASO is resorting to blackmail by using the Tour, which teams feel obliged to take part in from a financial point of view, and forcing them to choose between their short-term interests (participating illegally in the Paris-Nice in order not to risk being excluded from the Tour) and respect for an institution which guarantees the long-term health of their sport. Placing teams in this position is an act of sabotage on the structure the UCI has developed over the years to guarantee the rights of all those involved. This is why we have reached a situation where the French Cycling Federation is risking suspension, for having consented to the infractions committed by ASO executives; its President will probably be called to appear before a disciplinary commission, for the same reasons; and riders may be suspended for taking part in a race that is not part of the regulatory framework of the UCI. The effectiveness of the anti-doping campaign is also under threat. The UCI has had considerable success in this area, particularly with the biological passport, but it cannot conduct tests in a race that is not on the calendar. I realise that, after reading this list, you may feel the UCI is making a mistake; but I hope you will understand that, if we are to defend the established system, the UCI cannot afford not to take these measures, however painful they may be. If anyone here bears a heavy responsibility, it is the directors of ASO.
It is enormously disappointing that those institutions that should have been the first to defend the role of the international federations that govern their sport according to the Olympic Charter have failed to do so. The French Sports Ministry seems more concerned to support ASO’s projects than to urge a sense of discipline on a body that is breaching international rules. By condoning an organiser’s wish to opt out of the established structure, the Ministry is giving its blessing by default to the creation of a private league. And this is all the more astonishing given the Ministry’s stated wish to avoid this! Is it right for a country to breach international rules, in support of what it believes to be its national interests, when these interests, far from being under threat, are actually being manipulated by a commercial entity? Is it right for a responsible politician to become the accomplice of a private organiser that wants to opt out of an institutional framework that has been so carefully set up? These questions are worth asking.
Pat McQuaid
UCI President
4 comments:
Does McQuaid sound like an unreasonable fool. He sounds like a little kid that only wants things the way he believes they should be.
If the UCI hadn't created the ProTour, we wouldn't be in this situation. The Grand Tour organizers were against the ProTour from the beginning. This isn't new. And when have the GT organizers been 'for doping'? No more than the UCI for turning a blind eye for decades.
I think McQuaid is fighting for his paycheck, not the cyclists.
1. "The Tour does not belong exclusively to the company that organises it: it also belongs to those who love it, and who are its raison d’être, which means, above all, the riders." I'm not sure this is true. We might *like* it to be true, but the truth of the matter is that ASO took the risks and bore the costs of developing Le Tour, and subject to French law, it is their property.
2. "Those who are passionate about cycling should be warned: agreeing to ASO’s demands would transform professional cycling into a league managed by the dominant organiser, rather than by an international organisation that represents the collective interest." The collective interest in *what exactly*? Fairness? If UCI is claiming the represent fundamental fairness, I suspect a certain winner of the 2006 TdF might beg to differ. This does indeed floow, though. If nothing else comes out of the UCI/ASO brinksmanship, it is this: caveat emptor. This applies to everyone: fans, riders, teams, sponsors..anyone that does business with any organizer of any race.
I think McQuaid has failed badly in his role, but, probably for all the wrong reasons, he's actually doing the right thing.
And I actually admire his stance. Right or wrong, it's good seeing a politician taking a high risk position (taking a stand ? What is the man thinking about ?).
Let's see what happens. ASO hasn't the interest in the sport to replace the UCI, so there's only one viable outcome really. The UCI needs to win.
As much as I dislike much of what McQuaid says on some subjects, I have to agree with him, at least mostly, on this one.
As other's have pointed out elsewhere, the established rules of the UCI are pretty clear in regards to Pro Tour and Pro Continental teams participating in national calendar events. They are not supposed to participate in them.
ASO's decision to move Paris-Nice not just outside the Pro-Tour calendar but to the national calendar cannot I feel have been an accident. One would presume that those in charge of ASO know the rules and chose to take a path that would not only get them out of the Pro-Tour, but also cause the most disruption to the UCI and by extension, international cycling as a whole.
Does the UCI need some changes? Probably so (some would say definitely so). If ASO's actions should bring about the demise of the UCI as a unifying governing body for cycling what would ASO have to put in its place? Nothing, as they aren't concerned with cycling as a whole, just with their piece of it.
Regards.
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