BikeRide.com Cycling Blog

The fued between the UCI and ASO (organizers of Paris-Nice and the Tour de France) has reached a boiling point. The organizers of Paris-Nice have turned the race into a “national” event in defiance of the UCI, so the UCI has told all ProTour teams not to race. Now the ASO is telling teams they must race Paris-Nice, or forget about racing in the Tour de France.

“If these teams refuse to come to Paris-Nice, then they will have taken the same stance on our other races,” ASO chief Patrice Clerc told a Belgian newspaper. “If that’s the case, I don’t see why we should invite them to the Tour de France. I will only reconsider this if they have a very good reason to skip Paris-Nice.”

I guess by turning the Tour de France into an all French amateur event, they could ensure that one of their own win the race, but this would virtually kill the sport. Sponsors who are paying millions of dollars are counting on the media exposure from the Tour de France.

The ProTour team managers will meet Friday to decide what to do.

The leadership in the sport of cycling is in need of a major overhaul. How much bad press can this sport take? The goals of the UCI and and the Grand Tours are really polar oposites. ASO owns the most influential race in the world and they want to keep it that way, and keep the financial rewards that come with that.
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The UCI wants to grow the sport globally and build up the importance of races other than the Tour de France. I think the UCI ProTour is what cycling needs to grow into a globally popular sport that the mainstream sports media outside of Europe cares about.