The fight for the control of professional cycling’s political and governmental landscape has intensified with the UCI and the Amaury Sport Organisation (organisers of the Tour de France) at loggerheads over the governing body’s latest set of WorldTour reforms.
The stakes are high, with ASO determined not to relinquish the power and influence on the sport they have built up over the years, while the UCI and the teams in the WorldTour are looking to push through reforms and extend the power and authority that they already have.
Last Friday a leaked letter from ASO to the UCI’s Professional Cycling Council (PCC) and the UCI Management Committee, indicated that the ASO was threatening remove their races from the 2016 WorldTour calendar if the reforms, in their current format, are approved.
ADVERTISEMENT
This threat came after an important presentation of the planned WorldTour reforms on June 10 in Geneva, where those appointed to draw up the reform for 2017-2020 revealed their updated vision for the future of men’s professional cycling. The PCC approved the reform document and its proposals in a vote during a meeting on June 16 but only with a majority. Cyclingnews understands that six members of the PCC voted in favour, two abstained and three voted against. Among those that apparently voted against the reforms were ASO’s Christian Prudhomme, and David Lappartient, the vice-president of the UCI. Cyclingnews reached out to ASO but have yet to receive an official response. David Lappartient agreed to be interviewed but has yet to speak to Cyclingnews.
The figures relating to the vote have been reported differently in other news outlets but Cyclingnews has confirmed the 6:3:2 results via two independent sources. The score would have been 7:3:2 had Team Sky’s Bernhard Eisel been present and voted. The Austrian is a UCI riders’ representative but was racing the Tour de Suisse when the vote took place and despite submitting written support for the reforms he was not eligible to vote due to his non-attendance.
Cyclingnews has obtained both the letter sent by Yann Le Moenner, the Marketing, Strategy and Business Development Director at A.S.O, to the PPC and UCI, and the 15-page WorldTour reform proposal document. We have spoken to several sources close to the reform process.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Interviews and Features http://ift.tt/1Bwzm7O
No comments:
Post a Comment