Brian Cookson has stressed that the UCI will move ahead with or without ASO in their plans to reform the WorldTour.
ASO, who run the Tour de France and a glut of other major races in and outside of France, including Paris-Nice, Paris-Roubaix, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, and the Vuelta a Espana, have already made clear that their races will sit outside of the WorldTour in 2017 if the UCI move forward to push through with their reforms that include new three-year team licences and an expanded WorldTour calendar.
At the UCI Track World Championships in London Cookson told the gathered press that the UCI would continue to mediate over their differences with ASO but the governing body's president added that the WorldTour reforms and the calendar would go through for 2017 even if the biggest races in the sport sat outside of their jurisdiction.
ADVERTISEMENT
"We're not going to have a war or a massive fallout," Cookson said.
"I'm in touch with ASO at the highest level and I'm hopeful that we can have an on going dialogue for the next few months. I'm confident that we can find a solution that will acknowledge that the sport needs to grow but that we need to protect people's existing assets and their vision. I think we can come up with a solution that works."
The dispute between the ASO and the UCI has been long and complicated. It has been suggested that there were elements within the UCI that had undermined the governing body's position and it's less of a secret that the French team are willing to sit behind ASO as it would safeguard their invitations to the most important races in their seasons.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/1YgfMUd
No comments:
Post a Comment