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.