Cycling Resolves Its Differences
The World of Professional Cycling Reaches Agreement on its Future
Dec 17, 2008
The organisers of cycling's most important races – the Grand Tours – and the governing body of international cycling – the UCI – have signed an agreement that puts an end to the long-running dispute that has existed between the parties.
The dispute had threatened to rip the sport of professional cycling apart, with the organisers of the Grand Tours considering establishing its own programme of events. Indeed, the 2008 Tour de France was run outside of the jurisdiction of the UCI primarily because of the dispute.
Long-Standing, Complex Dispute
Murmurings of a dispute were first heard in 2005 when the grand tour organisers registered their dissatisfaction with the UCI's plans to reform professional cycling.
Chief among the many issues ASO (owner of the Tour de France), RCS (owner of the Giro d'Italia) and Unipublic (owner of the Vuelta a Espana) had with the UCI was the organisers rights to control which teams were invited to participate in their races, as well as the distribution of Television and Commercial revenues.
In 2005 the UCI established the Protour, a season long programme of elite races where riders were awarded points depending on their performances and, at the end of the season, the rider with the most Protour points was announced as the winner of the Protour.
In order to compete, elite teams had to obtain, and pay for, a Protour license. To the teams such a license was really only attractive if it would guarantee invitation to all of the sport's elite races; including the most lucrative races, which are of course the Grand Tours.
So, the UCI wanted to make it mandatory for the Grand Tours to invite all of the Protour teams, a situation the organisers were not comfortable with. ASO and the others wanted to hold on to the right to invite what teams it wanted to its own races.
Resolution Long Overdue
The issues remained unresolved for a couple of years with both parties tolerating each other for the good of the sport but continuing to argue the issues in the background.
However, things came to a head early in 2008, with the organisers announcing that their races would be run outside of the Protour. This meant that in 2008 the three Grand Tours and a number of other high profile races including Paris – Nice and Paris – Roubaix were not part of the Protour, making the Protout markedly less attractive to the teams and resulting in a number of teams announcing that they would not be renewing their Protour licences in 2009.
With the UCI facing a real challenge to its authority and the future of the sport in real jeopardy a resolution had to be found.
In August it appeared that real progress had been made and towards the end of the season it was announced that a deal had been signed and the dispute was over.
Pat McQuaid, president of the UCI said, “Things have been worked out now, the agreement has been signed, and the pathway for the future has been laid out...It is now a question of working together with the organisers and rebuilding relationships. My desire is that relations with the Tour go back to the way they were a few years ago. I genuinely feel that the people we are dealing with in EPA (owners of ASO) are sincere, honest, and have the same desires as us."
It must now be hoped that the sport can put this unsavoury dispute behind it and focus on the very real threat to the long-term future of the sport which is, of course, doping.
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