Former UCI President Hein Verbruggen has criticised the governing body for lacking a long-term strategy as it sets about implementing reforms of the WorldTour system, and suggested that current incumbent Brian Cookson has been swayed in turn by the demands of the teams and Tour de France organiser ASO.
In a lengthy letter to the UCI board, written last month and signed “Hein Verbruggen, UCI Honorary President for life,” the Dutchman said that many of the economic issues facing men’s professional cycling now are the same as when the UCI first introduced the WorldTour (then ProTour) in the final year of his presidency in 2005.
“Looking at the current, rather chaotic situation, one has to conclude [professional road cycling] is NOT ‘succeeding,’” Verbruggen wrote. “Today, it is not only the teams that remain financially fragile, with their sustainability threatened, but also riders’ employment is equally fragile. Less still is there a [WorldTour] identity and narrative - and team sponsors risk seeing their participation rights reduced.”
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Discussions about the planned 2017 reforms of the UCI calendar began under Pat McQuaid’s presidency and have continued since Cookson took over in 2013.
The UCI’s plans appeared to have hit a roadblock last December when ASO pledged to pull its races from the WorldTour calendar in 2017, but the two organisations reached an agreement in June that would eventually reduce the WorldTour from 18 to 16 teams, and introduce a framework that allowed for the promotion and relegation of teams.
Verbruggen criticised the UCI for what he saw as switching from supporting the position of the Velon group of teams to backing ASO’s viewpoint. He cited the influence of European Cycling Union president David Lappartient’s letter to Cookson earlier this year in which he outlined concerns at the impasse between ASO and the UCI.
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