The organiser of the Giro d’Italia, RCS Sport has distanced itself from fellow Grand Tour organiser ASO by stating it is not against the proposed reforms to men’s professional cycling and the WorldTour structure that have so angered the Tour de France organiser.
Last week ASO threatened to pull all its races, including the Tour de France from the 2016 WorldTour calendar if the reforms are approved, sparking a deep divide between the most powerful organiser in the sport and the teams, riders, the UCI and other race organisers, who all believe some kind of reform is needed.
ASO was part of the working group of stakeholders that drew up the 15-page reform document but then voted against it when it was proposed to the UCI’s Professional Cycling Council (PCC), which is entrusted with the technical and administrative organisation of the WorldTour. The UCI Management Committee was expected to approve the reforms last week but the matter never reached a vote, with several key members asking for further details and analysis of the consequences of the reforms. Some members of the UCI Management committee were clearly keen to avoid a war with ASO, including vice-president David Lappartient of France, who gave his personal opinion on the reforms in an exclusive interview with Cyclingnews.
ADVERTISEMENT
Contrary to initial plans to reduce the size of the WorldTour calendar, the final proposed reforms call for an enlarged WorldTour calendar, without cutting the length of any current races but 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 for after 2020 are hashed out.
RCS Sport is known to be broadly in favour of a reform process and in a press release Managing Director Paolo Bellino and Director of Cycling Mauro Vegni said that that the Italian organiser's ultimate goal “is solely to grow the movement of cycling worldwide ensuring stability in the medium and long term, thus increasing the value of their assets.”
“RCS Sport has never been opposed to the Reform Project and is ready to analyse and discuss all technical issues related to it with all relevant parties involved, first and foremost with the UCI.”
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/1fJbaVZ
No comments:
Post a Comment