Jason Ford

Reading this story is like watching some one slit their own wrists. Nether
side will come out better than what they did going into it. Just as the
sport takes an up swing or gains a little momentum something like this rears
its ugly head.

On the bright side, things like this in Europe make the ToC, ToGeorgia, and
ToUtah look all the more attractive.

-Jason

>From: "Freyensee, James P"
>To:
>Subject: [OBRA Chat] OT: Messy, messy UCI
>Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2007 10:40:36 -0800
>
>I don't know if people have been following, but Pat McQuaid and the UCI
>is turning the whole racing world up-side down.
>
>
>
>He has ordered all ProTour teams not to do Paris-Nice and dropped
>Paris-Nice from the ProTour calendar. This is a reaction from ASO (the
>organizers of Paris-Nice) turning down a request to include one of the
>ProTour teams, Ubinet. I don't know the reason why Ubinet was turned
>down, but I do know a big sticking point between all the Grand Tours and
>the UCI is that the Grand Tours want to be able to invite a few local
>teams within their country, that these teams get totally shut out of any
>great race opportunity within that country because of the current
>ProTour rules.
>
>
>
>Since this order by McQuaid, 6 teams have defied the order and said will
>compete in Paris-Nice: Rabbobank, Gerolsteiner, and all the French
>ProTour teams. Now Pat McQuaid has told these teams if they compete in
>Paris-Nice, they will be heavily fined.
>
>
>
>Meanwhile, the ASO has thrown a Mike-Tyson-reverse-uppercut to the UCI
>and the whole cycling world, with this current stance: "If the ProTour
>teams who originally accepted their invitation to Paris-Nice now turn it
>down, they will not be allowed to race in the Tour de France".
>
>
>
>
>
>I have been a fan for cycling for years, but this type of stuff makes me
>really tune-out the sport.
>

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