Iwan Spekenbrink, the president of the AIGCP teams association and the manager of the Team Giant-Alpecin, believes that the planned reforms to professional cycling revealed by Cyclingnews on Monday are widely supported by the different stakeholders in the sport, including teams, race organisers, riders and the UCI, who have lead the work to improve the structure and rules of the WorldTour. Despite obstruction from Tour de France organizer ASO, Spekenbrink is hopefully the reforms will eventually be approved and go on to help create a more stable future for professional cycling.
The proposed reforms would allow for an expanded WorldTour calendar, without cutting the length of any current races. It will also allow teams to opt out of any new races. Teams would be reduced to between 23-25 riders and current WorldTour teams would be given a three-year licence for an interim period of 2017-2020, while details of a final reform to take place after 2020 are hashed out.
Spekenbrink wanted to respond to what he considers as “innaccuries” made by UCI vice-president and president of the French Cycling Federation David Lappartient in an interview with Cyclingnews.
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Despite being involved in the development of the reform proposals, Lappartient sided with ASO and voted against the reforms in a key meeting of the UCI Professional Cycling Council (PCC) on June 16. The PCC is entrusted with the technical and administrative organisation of the WorldTour.
A few days before the PCC vote, ASO threatened to withdraw its races, including the Tour de France, from the 2016 WorldTour calendar. Consequently the UCI Management Committee baulked at voting through the reforms last week, asking for details and consequences of the reforms to be given further consideration.
In his interview with Cyclingnews, Lappartient suggested the reforms lacked a spirit of openness and performance-based rules for deciding who has a place in the WorldTour. Lappartient said any North American style closed system went against his and the UCI’s philosophy for sport.
Spekenbrink responded by saying the 15-page reform proposal document included a specific criteria that ensured stakeholders share the commitment to an open system and that it included provisions that meant that the WorldTour would remain open, despite giving existing teams a three-year licence.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
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