Insiders' views on the UCI-ASO fight

By Susan Westemeyer

The stuggle between the UCI ProTour and the ASO are causing confusion in the German-speaking cycling world. The team leaders are looking for diplomatic solutions, with T-Mobile Team Manager Bob Stapleton saying, "We want a fair solution for everyone, in the interests of cycling." While Gerolsteiner's Hans-Michael Holczer noted, "If there is no agreement, then everyone loses."

The riders see it from a slightly different, and more practical, angle. Gerolsteiner's Peter Wrolich simply wants to know where he will be racing. "The question right now is which race I will be sent to next," he said on peterwrolich.at. "It just keeps getting more complicated because of the difficult situation between the UCI and the major race organizers. The fight between the various parties is being carried out at the expense of the teams."

Rabobank's Grischa Niermann has yet another reason for wanting a solution to the problem. "I really hope that the fight between the UCI and the major race organizers will be settled soon, because if Paris-Nice really can't be ridden, then Tirreno[-Adriatico] won't happen either and my next race would be the Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco in April. And I really don't have any interest at all to train for a whole month here at home in Hannover in the rain," he wrote on grischa-niermann.de.