UCI/Grand Tours Truce Declared, Paris-Nice To Start Without Its Champion
In case you haven’t already heard, the UCI and the organizers of the Grand Tours have declared a truce in the pissing match to see who will decide which teams ride in which races. And not a moment too soon, as Paris-Nice (the “Race to the Sun”) will be starting on Sunday, the 11th.
The UCI’s threatened boycott didn’t come to pass, and the ProTour teams did not have to make the choice between following Pat McQuaid’s marching orders or facing the consequences of giving McQuaid a thumb in the eye. And Paris-Nice will go on, with all of the ProTour teams competing except for Unibet.com, who aren’t invited due to an arcane French law that limits gambling advertising.
Unibet.com is a Swedish on-line gambling company, which appears to be at the heart of the problem. If they were a French company holding the monopoly in France for online gambling, it appears that there would be no problem with them racing. But it’s odd that this law is being trotted out now to keep them from racing, given that they were able to compete in French races in the past. Seems more likely it’s a convenient excuse to exclude the team as part of the power struggle between the ASO and the UCI.
“We are of the opinion that this whole legal debate is actually just a cover-up for something much more fundamental, which is the struggle that is going on between the UCI and the organizers of the Grand Tours to gain control over the cycling community and of the ProTour system” the team’s lawyer, Christoph De Preter, told cyclingnews.com.
The dust-up has sparked a legal battle, as Unibet.com have gone to court to try and force their way in to Paris-Nice and other races run by the ASO.
In all of the ruckus over who will be allowed to start Paris-Nice, one thing seems to be missing. And that’s any mention of the race’s current reigning champion — Floyd Landis. Landis won’t be competing in the Race to the Sun this year, due to two things:
- One, the on-going USADA/WADA anti-doping case, and
- Two, his promise to the AFLD that he would refrain from racing in France this year, given in exchange for postponing the French agency’s anti-doping hearings in the same matter
Landis, instead, will be in Denver on Sunday, after making appearances in the Chicago area as part of the current barnstorming “Tour de Innocence.” (For more information about the Denver event, click here. To register, click here.) And while Landis’ endurance isn’t being put to the test in the Race to the Sun, he’s certainly involved in an endurance event this year, one of greater proportion and duration than any he’s been involved in before. And one where the stakes are much higher.
I’ll be happy to meet Floyd Landis this weekend in Chicago, but I’d much prefer seeing Landis defend his Paris-Nice title.
Got An Hour? Tune In To The Spokesmen Podcast
If you want to listen to interesting round-table discussions of cycling issues, take the time to head on over to The Spokesmen and listen to their podcasts. In the latest episode, Rant Your Head Off even gets a brief mention.
Judging Floyd, A T(B)V Series, Part II
The latest installment of Judging Floyd has been posted at Trust But Verify. In part 2, the Hon. William Hue and David Brower discuss the selection of the arbitration panel and the beginnings of the discovery process for the Landis case. They present new information about why it took so long to form the panel: The two arbitrators selected by the warring sides could not agree on the third, the “neutral” arbitrator who serves as the panel’s president.
Judge Hue and Brower present profiles of the arbitrators involved in the case, including references to previous cases each has participated in. Among other things mentioned, they debunk the notion that the arbitrator Landis selected, Christopher Campbell, “always” sides with the athletes. It turns out that Campbell has voted against the athletes involved in hearings 15 times and voted in favor of the athletes only 3 times.
The next article in the series will cover the hearing, its procedures and burden of proof. No matter whether you think Floyd Landis is guilty or innocent, this series details the mechanics of how the Landis case will be decided. As with the first part, part 2 is well worth a read.
Superhuman Effort Or A Tale Of Tactics?
Regular readers may remember that I’ve written previously that Floyd Landis’ epic Stage 17 ride in the 2006 Tour de France was not a superhuman effort, but a tale of tactics gone right and tactics gone wrong.
In Landis’ case, he correctly guessed how the peloton would react to his breakaway effort, and his team backed him up brilliantly. Where he was having trouble getting enough food and water in Stage 16, which caused him to bonk on the last climb and lose the yellow jersey, Landis’ team kept him fed, hydrated and cool on the way to Morzine.
Landis, who once was a professional mountain biker, used his descending prowess to gain time on the field, and managed to hold them off on the final climb, even though he gave back some of his time gains before the race was done.
In the case of Oscar Pereiro and the rest of the peloton, they guessed wrong. Letting Floyd bake in the noon-day sun didn’t fry him to a crisp, because he stayed within the limits of his abilities rather than push too hard. By the time the last climb started, Landis was too far off the front for the pack to reel him in.
Peloton Jim over at Endless Cycle does an excellent job laying out the day’s events as they unfolded. If you want to learn a bit about the tactics involved in bike racing, take the time to pay a visit.
