A plague o' both your houses

"A plague o' both your houses"
-Mercutio
--From Romeo and Juliet (III, i, 94)

Mercutio had it right in Romeo and Juliet when he cursed both the Montagues and the Capulets. We all should sit back and say the same thing to the UCI and the Grand Tour organizers as their actions threaten the start of the season. For those that have not been following events and how we got here or who have not taken time to review all of Cyclingnews.com's archive, here is the Cliffs Notes version:

Former UCI President Hein Verbruggen organized the ProTour in an attempt to provide greater assurances to sponsors of top cycling teams entry into the top events; increase the television revenue; and provide greater control over the top of the sport.

The ProTour replaced the former Division 1, Division 2, Division 3 structure the UCI had maintained which had resulted in some lower quality European teams in the top division of the sport, but the top races did not necessarily invite all of the top teams. Sponsors would bet everything on getting into the Tour de France and when they did not, sponsorship would dry up midseason resulting in turmoil for riders.

The ProTour structure was intended to provide greater professionalism and greater consistency for teams. ProTour licenses would be for multiple years and would entitle the holders of ProTour licenses entry into all the top races. ProTour teams were required to meet certain requirements in terms of finances, roster size, and ethics.

The ProTour replaced the World Cup which consisted of one-day races as well as the UCI's confusing ranking system based upon a rolling point system over the course of two seasons.

Races given entry into the ProTour calendar would include the Grand Tours, the World Cup one day races, and the important secondary stage races.

Immediately, teams and race organizers began voice their objections. No longer would the Grand Tours be able to show the domestic bias they had in inviting teams. Historically, the Giro d'Italia was primarily Italian and the Vuelta a Espana was primarily Spanish. Although the Tour de France was historically the "Super Bowl" of cycling, it typically invited minor French teams. The Grand Tour organizers would have their own selection requirements which frequently resulted in the exclusion of quality teams with strong results.

Historic races excluded from the ProTour calendar were limited as to the number of ProTour teams that they could invite. Additionally, because all ProTour teams were required to race all ProTour races, when there were overlapping ProTour events, even with the larger ProTour squads, ProTour teams were stretched thin and quit racing races that they historically had participated in Portugal, Spain and Italy.

That had an impact on television coverage as national TV channels were no longer interested in covering national races when the top national teams were racing at that time in the ProTour races.

So how did it play out?

Some smaller races have gone by the wayside.

Television coverage and sponsorship has increased for the big events, decreased or ceased for smaller races.

The organizers of the Grand Tours have seen their power increase as a result of the fact that the three organizers, the ASO, RCS and Unipublic, actually promote and control the most significant races of the year: Paris-Nice, Tirreno-Adriatico, Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix, Fleche Wallone, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Giro d'Italia, Tour de France, Vuelta a Espana, Paris-Tours, and Tour of Lombardy. These races constitute well over 100 days of racing and are controlled by three entities.

The Giro and Vuelta have balked at having to invite teams that really have no interest in participating in their race. The Tour de France has balked at only being able to select minimal wild cards.

From the beginning, the Grand Tours have declared their independence from the ProTour.

This year the ProTours announced that they would recognize not the 20 ProTour teams designated by the UCI, but rather the 18 teams that existed at the end of last season, and would put into place their own structure for points, prices, and invites for their races in the future.

To start this season the ASO announced the invited teams for Paris-Nice and excluded the newest ProTour team, Unibet.com. Similarly, RCS announced the teams for Tirreno-Adriatico and Milan-San Remo and also failed to include Unibet.com.

The Grand Tours and the UCI attempted negotiations to end the impasse last week but those negotiations broke down in acrimony.

With just over a week to Paris-Nice, the UCI announced that ASO could not exclude Unibet.com or it would not sanction the race. The ASO announced that it would sanction and run the race under the auspices of the French Cycling Federation. The UCI announced that its regulations precluded the participation of ProTour licensed teams and Professional Continental teams (the second tier of professional teams) were prohibited from participating in nationally sanctioned races.

Of course the French ProTour teams have now announced they will ride Paris-Nice while the rest of the ProTour teams have announced that they will not.

Thus, Mercutio had it right. "A plague o' both your houses." The Grand Tours and the UCI are screwing up big time.

Tour of California

In case you have not watched or followed any of the Tour of California here is the recap:

Vs. has had excellent television coverage this year. The production quality is better than ESPN's coverage last year and it has been on at reasonable times.

The race has upgraded the competition with the inclusion of Liquigas, Quick.Step, Rabobank, and T-Mobile.

Levi Leipheimer has led the race since winning Sunday's opening prologue in San Francisco.

Team CSC has been very strong and very aggressive. Their team tactics have put Discovery in difficulty during Stages 3 and 6 where Team CSC has aggressively put riders into breakaways that have left Discovery chasing for most of the day without much help from the peleton. Discovery has defended well. However, letting Jens Voigt get away in Stage 3 and Stuart O'Grady get away in Stage 6 when both were well positioned on GC, represents a tactical error on the part of Discovery. Discovery spent a lot of time and manpower shutting down long breakaways that threatened Liepheimer's lead.

The domestic American squads have largely been pack fodder. The top domestic squads, Health Net, Navigators, and Slipstream have tried to flex their muscle but have been no real match for the European ProTour squads. The smaller squads have done virtually nothing.

Team CSC and Discovery are clearly the most disciplined teams in the world as evidenced by their collective performance in the Solvang Individual Time Trial where the two teams had the top nine riders on the stage.

Domestic teams frequently have hideous uniforms: Jelly Belly, Priority Health, and Slipstream should be fined for bad fashion sense. However, Liquigas is pretty bad this year as well.

Discovery clearly brought a strong team with the intention of winning, however, for the Grand Tours, Discovery is really going to miss Slava Ekimov who retired this year. I really do not think that Discovery has the horses that it has had in years past. They don't seem to have the roleurs that they have had in the past.

Sunday Update: Adding to the herculean effort of Discovery Channel on Saturday was the fact that George Hincapie actually broke his arm in the crash early in Saturday's stage. He finished the stage and provided the strength the team needed to defend Liepheimer's lead. Sunday, Hincapie had surgery to put a plate in his arm ending his Spring campaign. Hincapie will not contest Paris-Roubaix in the stars and stripes jersey which is unfortunate.

Update on Landis

Reports from the Los Angeles Times indicate that there is evidence that the French lab that tested Floyd Landis' sample, which was found to have an impermissible testosterone ratio, may have violated WADA protocols for testing. If true, the Landis test may be invalidated as was the case for Inigo Landaluze whose positive EPO test was thrown out for the French lab's similar violation of protocol in 2005. We will see if this is really a story with legs.

The Season Begins

President's Day weekend is typically my "unofficial" beginning to the cycling season. The last couple of years we have spent it at the Seattle Bike Expo. In prior years I have used it for the first really big ride of the year. The European season really starts to ramp up mid-February. The last couple of weeks have been a real grind at work. I have had numerous public hearings, appellate briefs, mediation events, and other projects which have consumed most of my time. I had a significant brief due on Friday and I did not get it done early enough to get a ride in Friday. Anyway, I have not worked at all this weekend, although I will work on Monday to get a jump on things. Here are assorted news, thoughts and stuff for your President's Day weekend.

The Tour of California, Part 1

Sunday was the start of the Tour of California with the Prologue in San Francisco. Levi Leipheimer won the uphill prologue for the second year in a row. This year he did it for Discovery Channel. The field for this year's Tour of California is a significant upgrade over last year's event with additional ProTour teams from Europe participating. Even better, the television coverage appears to be much improved over last year's middle of the night, ESPN8, broadcasts. Vs., the home of the Tour de France, is broadcasting this year's race and after one day, the prodution quality is greatly improved. We will see how it goes over the mountains, where last year's coverage kind of fell apart. Here is Cyclingnews.com's home for the Tour of California.

The Tour of California, Part 2

One of the greatest innovations at last year's Tour of California was the Specialized "Angel," America's answer to the Devil seen in Europe. Here is PezCyclingNews.com's interview with the Angel detailing her experiences last year. She returns for a second year. To be "fair and balanced" here is PezCyclingNew.com's interview from 2004 with the Devil.

The Tour of California, Part 3

The Tour of California organizers and sponsors were chagrined this week when they confirmed that there had been no testing done last year during the Tour for EPO in a story by the New York Times. Amgen, the Tour's sponsor, had viewed the race as a way to promote the benefit of EPO for cancer patients while distancing itself from the taint of the recent drug scandals. It appears someone screwed up and based upon past experience and the reporting of Cyclingnews.com, it was probably someone at USACycling.

Will the Riders Boycott?

Team Unibet.com continues to get bad news. Giro d'Italia organizer RCS announced its invitations for Tirreno-Adriatico, Milan-San Remo and the Giro d'Italia on Friday, omitting Unibet.com from the list of participating teams. Unibet.com became a ProTour team after Phonak withdrew from the sport. The Grand Tour organizers had announced that they would only recognize and invite the 18 ProTour teams left at the end of last season. The Spanish team that was Liberty Seguros and then became Astana ultimately was reforumlated as a Swiss-Kazakh team and recieved the other ProTour slot for the season. Astana has been given a "wild card" into the Italian races and is a much more attractive team than Unibet.com. Cyclingnews.com had an interesting article about the responses of some of the teams to Unibet.com's exclusion from the ProTour races so far this year by RCS and ASO. If the ProTour teams do not show solidarity and actually show up and race Paris-Nice after the exclusion of Unibet.com and if the UCI fails to take some action, then the Grand Tours will have won and the ProTour will be dead. If the teams boycott the opening ProTour races, Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico, then they will once and for all show a maturity in the sport that has never been shown before. Regardless of what happens, I expect a train wreck.

First Family Ride of the Year

Saturday was sunny and in the mid 50's here in Boise. Andrew and I replaced the old 650C tires and tubes on his Fuji road bike I bought last year, which even though just a 43cm frame was too big for him. We put on the odometer he received from his grandparents as a Christmas present and he, Kristin and I went for a family ride on our road bikes. We had our Cyclista.com jersey's on over longsleeves. We ended up going nearly 18 miles on the first ride of the year and Andrew's bike handling skills have greatly improved. The first nice day of the year is always the most dangerous in Boise as you have to dodge the twice-a-year Greenbelt crowd who dust off the Wal-Mart specials and take to the Greenbelt with all 26 kids in tow. Either that or you have old folks on cruisers who think you can ride two abrest. Once we got past Municipal Park we were alone with the more serious riders. One dude even asked which club we rode for, I told him we are the corporate team for Cyclista.com and he thought that was cool. No one cried, no one complained of pain, and Andrew did his best Marco Pantani impersonation riding up Amity road to Federal Way as he struggled to get up the hill in his smallest gear.

I am Glad People Ride, but Really . . .

Last Wednesday night, heading home in rushour traffic, I passed a family riding from the Albertson's grocery store on Overland down Orchard. They had been shopping and the mom had one kid plus the groceries in her trailer. I like seeing families out on their bikes, but it was a cold day, none of the kids had adequate coats on to be riding. None of them had a helmet. The kids were probably 6 and 8 and were weaving down the sidewalk ahead of the mother who was talking on her cell phone. Unfortunately, this was a situation with an accident waiting to happen.

Random Thoughts When You Do Not Have Time

Well,

I am in the midst of a really pressure packed period at work. With multiple public hearings, appellate briefs, and other important meetins, as well as a speech at BOMA Boise's Commerical Real Estate Symposium this week, I have not had a lot of time. So here are some odds, ends and random thoughts:

Discovery Channel Ends Sponsorship

Discovery Channel is ending its sponsorship of cycling at the end of this season. While the company has indicated it was a decision driven by internal marketing objectives and a major management shakeup, the current toxic environment in cycling could not have helped.

You Have Got To Love The French

Gambling is a waste of time and money. Gambling preys upon those least able to afford it. The gambling industry has amazingly convince much of the world that throwing money away on what is inherently a guess or luck is in fact entertainment. However, you have to shake your head at the French. French authorities have barred ProTour team Unibet.com from wearing their jerseys in the opening races in France this season. So Unibet.com has raced in France with a question mark jersey. Now, French authorities could do it for the fashion travesty that is the team kit of the Swedish-Belgian team. Instead French officials have barred the team from advertising the online gambling site because such gambling violates French law. Nevermind the fact that Francaise de Jeux, used to be FJD.Com and is the French lottery and gambling site, or that PMU is an official sponsor of the Tour de France and is off track parimutuel betting, that Predictor Lotto, is sponsored by the Belgian national lottery and that Unibet.com's predecessor Mr.Bookmaker.com raced throughout Europe before the team was rebranded.

What Would The Response Have Been If They Weren't Teammates?

The European cyclocross season is coming to an end and there is always animosity among the riders, even frequently on the same team. However, you have to wonder what Richard Richard Groenendaal's reaction to Sven Nys' recent victory would have been had they not been on the same team.

Dick Pound Gets Slapped Down

WADA chief Dick Pound was reprimanded this week for his vocal criticism of Lance Armstrong and allegation that Armstrong won the 1999 Tour de France as a result of performance enhancing drugs. No word yet if he will have to write on the blackboard 100 times "I will try to be impartial and not defame cyclists" when he gets sanctioned for his tasteless comments about Floyd Landis.