McQuaid reacts to Tour de France moving outside UCI

UCI President Pat McQuaid (Image credit: AFP)

News feature, June 5, 2008

"My overall reaction is one of great anger that they have decided to take this route," he stated. "They have consistently refused to accept decisions taken by the UCI management committee, and it is obvious that they are out to create another international federation. The contract which they have put out to the teams is a Draconian one, and one which is only going to get worse because it is a one-sided contract and it will be written into their rules as and from next year.

"It is very disappointing that the biggest player in the sport refuses to respect order, refuses to respect regulations. I am here in Greece at a conference with all of the federations from the summer and winter Olympics, and many of them are discussing what is going on with me. Every one of them is in complete agreement that as an international authority, our role is to lay down the rules and regulations of the sport. Yet these guys refuse to respect that."

At a press conference held in Paris on Tuesday, Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme faulted the UCI's stipulation that the 18 ProTour teams must be allowed to take part in the race. This is being highlighted as one of the main reasons for ASO's decision to go outside the UCI, but McQuaid rejects that this is a valid reason. He states that the teams agreed amongst themselves that all the ProTour squads should be allowed compete, and that the UCI is following on from that decision.

"They are using the excuse of the 18 teams, but that is not the issue at all. Remember that when we talked about the ProTour last September, the 18 teams came out afterwards and had a meeting with the AIGCP. At that meeting, these races were discussed, plus the fact that they are going onto the Europe Tour and going outside the ProTour calendar. There was a decision taken by the AIGCP that the 18 teams in the ProTour should have the right to participate in the Tour de France.

"That went to the CUPT (UCI ProTour Council) via the two representatives there - at that time they were Roger Legeay and Patrick Levefre - and this was discussed and agreed at the council there. It then went to the management committee of the UCI which has the ultimate responsibility for rules and regulations, and it was discussed and agreed there. That to me is a democratic process, in terms of putting a regulation into place. But ASO refused to respect that regulation.

"This isn't really a question of the 18 teams, they are putting that forward as an excuse. What they want to do is make their own rules. They are talking about having their own rules about radios, they are talking about having their own rules about anti-doping, and the contract that they have given to teams is one-sided and Draconian. For example, if the team has a doping problem in the Tour de France, they have to pay the French federation 100,000 euros. So it is obvious that the French federation are in cahoots with ASO."

"In any organisation, we cannot have dissident stakeholders such as that. They are outside the UCI now in our opinion is to leave them outside until such time as they are prepared to respect the rules of the UCI. Because otherwise we have got anarchy, otherwise we cannot work, otherwise this goes all over the place and the whole sport breaks down. Maybe that is their intention, that they take over the sport.

"ASO produced a document recently, the Protocol d'Accord. It is a document for a new start in professional cycling, written by ASO. What it does is puts the three Tours and the Monuments on the top tier of racing and everything else below that. But it also states that for those events in the top tier of racing, there can be no other races run in concurrence with any of them. In other words, for the 70-odd days of racing there, you can have no other competition."

He warns that this is akin to a monopolistic situation, and one which would be very damaging for the sport. "What that is doing is ensuring their economic interests forever and ever... not allowing any other races to develop, to become a high level. This is what they are after. Not alone that, they want all the decision-making processes in their hands. As an international authority, the UCI cannot allow the decision-making process go into the hands of vested interests. Those vested interests will only look after themselves."

"They have never offered any money into the biological passport, they have never shown any interest in contributing to that programme. Yet then they turn around and get the benefits of that passport programme, because they are taking 17 of the 18 ProTour teams, all of whom are in the passport system since the beginning of the year. They are getting the benefits of it, but they have not contributed.

"But in terms of the teams and the riders, they are obviously going into another scenario like that which happened with Paris-Nice, which is that they are riding a race which is outside UCI rules. Therefore they can face sanctions. We did say in relation to the teams and riders after Paris-Nice that we wouldn't take measures against them immediately, that we would see what happens as the season progresses. Things are moving on now and we will have to take a decision at some stage soon."