David Lappartient, the vice president of the UCI, the president of the French Cycling Federation, the European Cycling Union and president of the influential UCI’s Professional Cycling Council, has told Cyclingnews he believes it is possible to find a compromise solution and a draw up a set of reforms for professional cycling that will prevent the power struggle between the organisers of the Tour de France, the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), and the leading teams in the sport from escalating.
On Friday it emerged that ASO had threatened to pull its races from the WorldTour calendar if a 15-page reform document was approved for the interim period of 2017-2020. The letter accused the UCI of straying from its role as an intermediary or guide, saying that the governing body has been “caught off-side” and “would be close to endorsing a mercantile system, extraneous to sporting merit, in which the right to participate would be bought by the teams.”
Cyclingnews revealed details of the complex power struggle in an exclusive story on Monday after seeing the reform proposal document and the letter of protest from ASO, and after talking to several sources close to the reform process.
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As head of French cycling but also a key player at the UCI, Lappartient is trying walk a tightrope across cycling’s no-man’s land. He is under pressure from both sides, but also seems keen to promote himself as a future UCI president. He is an able politician, even when speaking in English, and seems to genuinely want to find a solution to the reform conflict, one that appeases the teams pushing for a more stable business model, and satisfies dominant race organisers like ASO who want to defend the status quo and keep the power and influence they have developed over time.
“I don’t think it’ll be easy to find a solution, for sure, but we have no other solution but to find a solution,” Lappartient told Cyclingnews during a telephone interview from the European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan.
“Sometimes it is possible to find peace after a war but we don’t even want a war. Instability is not good for the teams or anyone in cycling. Brian and I really want to create a stable system but stability does not come with a closed system. It’s about knowing the rules and applying them. It’s about having something that is accessible for everyone.”
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