Keep The Riders Out Of It

Sara Best

While many families look forward to next week’s March Break for a little fun in the sun, riders in the ProTour are under considerably more stress as the March 9-16 Paris-Nice race approaches.

The fight between the UCI, ASO and the French Cycling Federation (FFC) has been heating up since the FFC agreed to ASO’s request to organize Paris-Nice as an event on the national calendar, under the exclusive jurisdiction of French law.

UCI President Pat McQuaid has been very outspoken about his displeasure with the situation. McQuaid made it clear that the UCI will not be involved in any way in the organization of Paris-Nice under the current conditions. This means that, as far as the UCI is concerned, the event will have no classification and no winner, and no points will be awarded for it. Moreover, no anti-doping controls will be carried out by the UCI, nor will it be involved in the management of any tests which may be carried out under national law.

He has asked teams to boycott the event and last week sent out an open letter to all riders stating that, by participating in the race, they would, “Be joining a private circuit controlled entirely by ASO for the benefit of its commercial interests,” wrote McQuiad. “You would be abandoning the protection afforded by rules of the UCI which are designed to give teams and riders rights and not simply protect the interests of organizers.”

Yesterday the L’Union Européenne de Cyclisme (UEC) met and voted against the running of the Paris-Nice race in this way but their decision is not binding and it’s still up to the UCI, ASO and FFC to come to an agreement amongst themselves. With the race starting this Sunday, time is running out.

McQuaid further upped the stakes this week by threatening that riders who participate in next week’s race may face sanctions.

According to Cycling News, when McQuaid was asked about such disciplinary measures he responded by saying, “We will wait and see what happens. The next step is for ASO to put that race back on the UCI calendar. There is no other alternative as far as the UCI is concerned. If they continue [on their current course] and decide not to do that, the UCI has to deal with the consequences of that.”

This whole Paris-Nice battle is just another in a long line between the UCI and ASO. They’ve never gotten along and it’s highly unlikely that they ever will. What bugs me is them dragging the riders into it as pons. There are a lot of parties involved in making the decisions in this mess, but the riders are not one of them. They have little to no say over what races they ride and to punish them for decisions that they have no control over is totally unfair.