The feud between the UCI and ASO is reaching a critical level putting the racers and teams in a Catch-22 situation. If the teams do not participate in this weekend's ASO event, Paris-Nice, they feel they are risking not getting invited to the Tour de France. However, if they do participate, the UCI is threatening heavy fines, six months suspension from any UCI-sanctioned event and exclusion from competing at the upcoming Olympics. I would hate to be a rider or team boss right now. This is definitely a no-win situation.

As I have said in previous blogs, I think the UCI are the bad guys here. Frankly, I haven't seen them do anything but give lip service over the past few years. One thing that is clear to me. The UCI is more concerned about self-preservation than it is about promoting cycling. Let's look at their track record.

After the debacle at last year's Tour de France the UCI vowed to step up the fight against doping by conducting 500 out-of-competition tests. They only conducted twenty(20) out-of-competition tests making it pretty evident to me that they are not that concerned about fighting doping in the sport. When Operacion Puerto first came out in 2006, the UCI had the opportunity to nip the scandal in the bud by providing DNA samples of all riders to the Spanish prosecutors. The UCI chose not to cooperate and Operacion Puerto has hung over the sport like a black cloud ever since. Thanks.

The UCI has warned the teams and riders that if they ride Paris-Nice and under the sanction of the French Cycling Federation that their rights as riders will be severely limited and they could be tossed out of a race at anytime for suspected bad behavior. I find this argument from the UCI very ironic. The UCI has had a history of disregarding riders rights some notable examples are releasing a number of doping positives, including Floyd Landis, to the public before due process had been carried out.

As far as tossing riders from races, the UCI stripped Danilo DiLuca of his 2007 Pro Tour points which cost him the overall Pro Tour title because of a sanction for a situation that occurred in 2004. How is it fair to strip somebody of a title they are winning in 2007 for something which happened in 2004? Also, the UCI sat idly by and let the race organizers of the Amgen Tour of California prohibit three riders from Rock Racing from starting based on supposed open doping investigations for which we have seen no documentation to support. How is that fair?

So, basically, I don't have much faith in the UCI to do anything right. That doesn't mean that ASO is a knight in shining armor, but compared to the track record laid down by the UCI, I will take ASO over the UCI any day. Clearly, the UCI has lost the plot and they don't seem to be close to finding it anytime soon. The result of all of this posturing is that professional cycling, which is teetering on the brink after all the recent doping scandals is on even more unstable footing. The UCI needs to go back to promoting the sport and stop trying to fatten their wallets.

Bruce

ps - now for some good news. I had a great ride in the hills above Silicon Valley today. Just a jersey and shorts and I was going fast enough up the climbs to actually feel some wind on my face. Being sick sucks and being really sick really sucks!

On the eve of the America's premier stage race, the Amgen Tour of California
(AToC), the attention shifted across the great pond where Amaury Sports
Organization (ASO) who own the Tour de France announced that Team Astana,
which has defending Tour champion Alberto Contador on it's roster, would not
be invited to any ASO-organized events in 2008. ASO's decision is in response
to the doping incident at the 2007 Tour which saw Alexandre Vinokourov testing
positive for blood boosting.

Hey, it's my blog and I say that decision sucks big time. After a very rocky
2007 which saw other doping violations, the Team Astana sponsors basically
kicked out all team personnel and questionable riders. On paper, the name may
be the same, but the squad and it's management are completely different. If
the sport of cycling is going to move forward from its current state, the
sport's governing body, the UCI, and the race organizers have to be willing to
give riders and their teams second chances.

Look, we are dealing with people's jobs and careers here. Decisions like this
have to be made fairly and consistently. Team Rabobank arguably brought the
most disgrace to the 2007 Tour. When was the last time the yellow jersey was
bounced from the Grand Boucle? Rabobank hasn't been excluded from all ASO
events. It just doesn't make sense to me. Clearly, this is going to be a hot
topic of discussion for a while. What are your thoughts?

So what does this mean for the upcoming AToC? Thankfully, the event
organizers, AEG, don't appear to have any hidden agendas so we are going to
have nine of the top European professional teams, including Astana, and eight
US Domestic squads (well, Slipstream and BMC have European racing schedules)
putting on one heck of a show.

Defending 2007 AToC champion and Tour podium finisher, Levi Leipheimer is on
Team Astana. If he and his mates are shut out of the biggest races in Europe,
that leaves the AToC to make a statement. Personally, I hope that ASO see the
flaw in their logic (it's so big it is hard not to notice) and invites, Levi
and Alberto to the big show. But, part of me likes the fact that Leipheimer
will undoubtedly be racing with a rather large chip on his shoulder at the
Tour of California because the guy has the legs and lungs to lay down a very
powerful statement.

Bruce

Rumours circulating in the media indicate that Amaury Sports Organization(ASO),
the company which owns the Tour de France, may not invite Team Astana to the
2008 edition of the race. That leaves defending Tour champion Alberto Contador
and America's best stage race rider, Levi Leipheimer, on the bench for
professional cycling's biggest show.

One of low points in last year's Tour was Team Astana's Alexandre Vinokourov
testing positive for non-homologous blood doping which resulted in the whole
team being sent home. The fallout from the affair saw a complete overhaul of
the squad, which is sponsored by a group of Kazakstani government-owned
businesses. Johan Bruyneel, who directed Lance Armstrong and his USPS/
Discovery Channel team to seven tour wins plus the win last year by Contador,
was brought in to rescue and rebuild the squad. Gone are almost all of the
team personnel and any rider who had doping problems, including Vinokourov.

Unfortunately, Contador still has a shadow hanging over him with regards to
Operacion Puerto; the initials AC appear on a questionable document. Contador
has declared his innocence, but in the world of denials by confessed dopers,
such as Marion Jones, the Tour champion's words seem to have had little affect
on the head honchos at ASO.

As I reported in an earlier blog, with the Tour de France dropping out of the
Pro Tour, the organizers at ASO now have complete control over which teams will
ride their race. At the 2007 Tour, ASO chief Christian Prudhomme told me that
in 2008 the Tour would be run under ASO's rules and not the UCI's and now that
has happened. Hey, ASO owns the Tour, they can decide to do whatever they
please. Way back in 1930, Tour boss and founder, Henri Desgrange, didn't
invite the 1929 winner, Belgian Maurice De Waele, to the race supposedly
because he didn't like how he won the previous year. I guess some people grow
on you as Desgrange invited De Waele back to the Tour the next year.

I think this sends a pretty clear message to Team Astana that the ball is in
their court and they need to take some pro-active steps to assure Contador's
innocence. The question is, if Contador's words are not sufficient, what does
he and his team need to do to prove their innocence? Hopefully, the Tour
bosses and Johan Bruyneel can come up with reasonable criteria so that everyone
feels like this issue has been dealt with fairly. It would be a shame not to
have the defending champion and also our native son, Levi, excluded from the
Tour on scurrilous grounds.

Bruce