Cycling: In recent years, there has been constant bubbling between the World Cycling Association UCI and the ASO, which among other things organizes the Tour de France. Now the power struggle seems to have escalated. Due to the announced WorldTour reforms, the ASO announced that it would withdraw all of its races from the WorldTour in 2017, including the Tour and the Vuelta.
The power struggle between the UCI and the French sports organizers of the ASO, which has been smoldering for many years, has now escalated this weekend. On Friday, the ASO announced that it will be withdrawing all of its 2017 races from the WorldTour. This of course affects the Tour de France, but also the Vuelta a Espana, Paris-Nice, Critérium du Dauphiné, La Flèche Wallonne, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Paris-Roubaix. In the season after next, these races will be held in the HC category, which gives the organizers much more leeway. But how did this dispute come about, what is it about and what does the OSA's decision mean?
In order to find the causes of the UCI vs. ASO conflict, you have to go back a few years - more precisely to the year 2008. At that time there was a very similar dispute between the two major cycling powers - it was about the WorldTour predecessor: The protour. In contrast to the current WorldTour, this was a 'closed system' – teams and drivers were tied to each other for the long term and were therefore guaranteed a start for the most important races for several years. This is crucial for sponsorship deals and future planning.
This was a thorn in the side of the ASO, as it naturally meant that the organizers' rights regarding starting places in their races were somewhat restricted. The dispute escalated to the point that the UCI called on teams to boycott Paris-Nice – an ASO race – and threatened expulsion if they refused. Patrick Lefevre, then sporting director at Quick-Step, described the dilemma for teams and riders: “We have to choose between the firing squad and the guillotine. If we participate in the race, we will be sanctioned by the UCI. If we follow the UCI's instructions, we probably won't get a starting place in the Tour de France.”
The situation calmed down at the time, and with the introduction of the WorldTour and its associated, significantly more open system, offering greater freedom to organizers like ASO, the situation stabilized completely. For 2017, the UCI announced comprehensive reforms to the WorldTour , including three-year contracts for the teams, thus taking a step back towards a more closed system. UCI President Brian Cookson explained that the reforms were intended to help the teams and guarantee them long-term financial security.
This of course brought the ASO back on the scene, who tried to the last to avert the planned changes and repeatedly threatened to withdraw their races from the WorldTour - but the UCI stood firm. Thus, neither the Tour, nor the Vuelta, nor Paris-Roubaix will be part of the WorldTour 2017. All these races are then run as HC races of the UCI Europe Tour - the UCI rules still apply, but ASO is freed from the restrictions of the WorldTour. The crux of the matter: In HC races, a maximum of 70% of the participating teams may be WT teams. For the tour, this would mean (with 22 teams starting) that only 15 of 18 WT racing teams would be allowed to start at the Grand Boucle 2017. The OSA alone has the power over who gets the coveted starting places.
Again the teams, the pros and we fans will be sitting between the chairs. The power struggle between ASO and UCI takes place on the back of sport – the advance of the ASO does not benefit anyone involved except the ASO itself. The discussions will certainly continue, and it is still a while until 2017 – but that’s how the fronts are at the moment hardened that unfortunately no agreement can be expected.