Although no firm decisions were made in Saturday's anti-doping talks between ASO and the ProTour...
Gerolsteiner general manager Hans Michael Holczer (Image credit: Shane Stokes)
Although no firm decisions were made in Saturday's anti-doping talks between ASO and the ProTour team managers, Hans-Michel Holczer felt that things have the potential to move forward in the right direction. "We are in a situation which is still very difficult," the Gerolsteiner boss told Cyclingnews' Shane Stokes prior to the start of Liège-Bastogne-Liège. "However, I think we have some ideas... it was like a brainstorming session as regards what could be done. There will be a meeting on May 4 with all the big stakeholders, and I hope that there will be some ideas, some possibilities, some actions which could be taken and go ahead with clearance.
"Some ideas were talked about yesterday but it's still at the discussion stage. We have to see what the fourth of May is going to bring."
In recent weeks T-Mobile, CSC and Gerolsteiner have all taken big wins. Given that they are presently three of the teams most closely associated with the anti-doping push, did Holczer feel that this is a sign that the playing field has become more level? "I am always a little cautious to make such judgements," he answered. "I am pretty happy on a personal level because I saw that the work that we do seems to be successful in the end, and this makes me content. In general, it might be too early to say that [things are better across the board]."
As much as the anti-doping fight is a hot topic of conversation within the sport, so too the current uncertainty about the UCI's ProTour. The German felt that there have certainly been advantages to its introduction. "It is, in my opinion, a very, very important institution. Whatever about all the problems and other conflicts you can see with the ProTour, there are some things which you can't argue with. One thing is that we have got much longer contracts. We can do more solid work with that, and much more honest.
