CPA's Vasseur polling riders

By Gregor Brown

All professional cyclists are currently being polled by the Association of Professional Cyclists (CPA), headed by its President, Frenchman Cédric Vasseur. The CPA wants to get riders' feedback on the use of race radios and it needs to have the names of riders representing each ProTour and Professional Continental team.

Vasseur, on his way to the 4 Jours de Dunkerque, informed Cyclingnews of the CPA's progress on selecting team representatives. "In the next day, the teams will receive a questionnaire to determine who will represent them," Vasseur stated, regarding the placement of one rider to represent a team, an idea that was put in place at the CPA's meeting in Liège on April 25.

"A lot of teams already have a representative, in Liquigas it is Manuel Quinziato, in Cofidis it's Stéphane Augé and in François des Jeux it's Philippe Gilbert. When we have answers from all of the ProTour [and Professional Continental] teams we will make the names available. We expect this by the end of May or the end of June."

The association, with representatives from each team, will have the ability to request a vote any time there is a key issue.

"This will allow us to have specific riders when we organise meetings," added Vasseur. "We can have a meeting with all the representatives from the teams that will race the Tour de France for example."

As it was in the April meeting, the use of race radios is a key topic. For this issue the CPA is polling every rider in the ProTour and Professional Continental ranks.

"Yesterday morning, all the riders received a questionnaire to determine if they are for against race radios. We sent this to all the riders, not just the representatives," Vasseur stated. "We believe that for the radio this is the better option. On a team we can have 10 for the radio, 15 against and maybe five who don't care. Again, this is all the riders in the ProTour and Professional Continental teams.

"I want to hear their answers and then, by the end of May, we can organise something for the Tour de France. The Tour is trying to organise stages without radios and, with the riders' responses, we can say which stages we would like to have the radios or not have the radios."

For more information read CPA's Vasseur heads democracy among riders.