Perhaps There’s A Slight Disconnect Somewhere

A couple of things caught my eye in the last day. First, Pat McQuaid’s comments about the ProTour expanding outside of Europe, as reported at VeloNews.

“We cannot remain a European sport. If we remain a European sport then we die,” he continued. “2008 will be a transition year for the ProTour, but by 2009 we will have a global ProTour. There will be teams within the current set-up who are not happy with that. But there are others who want the global reach and who want us to develop events outside Europe. We’ll get some criticism in the next 12 months, possibly we’ll have difficulty in gaining 100 percent support from some stakeholders. But I think they’ve got to have a bit of vision and look at what we’re trying to achieve in the long term.”

I’m all in favor of seeing the sport of cycling expand, especially to areas it hasn’t been before. But something seems wrong to me when the head of the sport’s governing body is so ready to write off pro cycling in Europe so easily. Isn’t it the UCI’s job to be a promoter of cycling, to encourage more people to take up the sport? Seems that would be part of the goal for expanding into Russia and China (incidentally, one country with a murky doping past, and the other allegedly a murky doping present). But as certain automotive companies have found out the hard way, if you don’t take care of your core constituency, you’re doomed in the long run.

So what’s with saying that if cycling remains a European sport it will die? Sure, sponsors are hard to find, and some are fleeing as quickly as they can. But there’s a base of fans out there who come out for the races, regardless of the controversies being stirred up in the backrooms and the labs. At some point, however, sponsors will come back — assuming that cycling can clean up some of it’s problems, PR and otherwise. And so will the fans. Of course, if the UCI wants to kill off European pro cycling, that’s another matter.

Which brings me to something Paolo Bettini said, as quoted at Cyclingnews.com:

“Today, it is everyone against everyone,” said the rider from La California to La Gazzetta dello Sport. “The federations against the organisers, and then the teams, riders, doctors and technicians. And it goes on like this … However, cycling is not dead, it is not dying, it will not die. It is embedded in the people: in the heart, the legs, the eyes. However, there is the risk of sponsors leaving, and this could ruin everything. Before, you would need a month to convince a company to invest in cycling, now you need about 10 years.”

The winner of the 2006 Giro di Lombardia and two consecutive World Championships in 2006 and 2007 noted there is a need for an accord. “We need to sit down at the table and rewrite the rules. The ProTour, for example, was reasonable but now it is shattered. Who can think of a race circuit without the Giro and Tour, Sanremo and Roubaix? Races that have written the story of cycling and have attracted the people.”

Bettini’s right. All of the constituencies in cycling need to come together and work out a peace agreement. When all the backstabbing, political intrigue and Machiavellian maneuvering comes to an end, and when everyone can truly work together for the good of the sport, then cycling can truly begin to flourish. It’s in everyone’s self-interest to see pro cycling succeed. The UCI, the teams, the race organizers, and the cyclists, themselves.

Pat McQuaid could learn a thing or two by sitting down and having a chat with Paolo.