Cycling chief Pat McQuaid has described as ”obscene” the plan by the sport’s three biggest races to offer teams appearance money.
McQuaid was making his first public reaction to the move on Friday by the tours de France, Italy and Spain to split from the International Cycling Federation’s (UCI) official ProTour series introduced for the first time this year.
Cycling’s holy trinity, who between them stage 11 of the 26 ProTour events, said that as a result of the divorce they would offer juicy financial carrots to teams after 2006.
McQuaid, tackling his first crisis since taking over as UCI president, said on Saturday: ”I was in Africa at the continental championships yesterday.
”I was looking at cyclists from Ethiopia, from Eritrea, and talking to officials from places like that about how difficult it is for cycling.
”And I took a plane and was faced with the fact of what came out of their [the tours’] news conference.
”To be honest with you, I felt it was obscene. For me, for the UCI, what matters is the fact that the money at the top is being used to develop the sport at the bottom.
”And when I then see the millions offered just to ensure the participation of teams, I think it is totally wrong. It’s obscene. It shouldn’t be the case.”
The Irishman said he hopes the two sides can reach an agreement.
”There has to be solution, a solution will have to be found,” he insisted. ”I’m not a pessimist; I consider myself a optimist. I think we have to see what the reaction is of the other stakeholders; we have to wait to see what the teams say.
”I still think if people are prepared to sit in a sensible way and negotiate, a long-term solution can be found.”
He said the UCI’s objective is to develop the sport.
”Any strategic decision taken by the UCI is taken for the development of the sport, not for commercial reasons. I think it would be a very sad day for sport if commercialism is allowed to dictate the rules, the regulations, the future, whatever.
”They [tour organisers] have their events, they can try and ensure participation to their events; there’s nothing we can do about that. They are going backwards.
”What I feel they have done is in the long term is they have given the power to the teams. They have recognised the power of the teams, but by the same token, when you see them offering €100 000 per team, all of the ProTour teams have 25 riders, you divide, you get €4 000 each, that’s an insult.” — Sapa-AFP