Rubiera is worried for Spaniards

By Antonio J. Salmerón

José Luis Rubiera (Discovery Channel) is worried "about 50 Spanish cyclists without work for 2007 due to the disappearance of the Kaiku and Comunidad Valenciana, and Operación Puerto." What is the solution? "None," continued Chechu in an interview published by La Nueva España. "Many riders call me and I call them for friendship reasons, but I do not have influence on the directors and teams' decisions. In addition, there are some teams which are presenting low offers ..."

Chechu Rubiera, the riders' representative in the UCI ProTour, also expressed concern for the disagreement between Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a España's organizers; he considered it "unfortunate" for cycling. "The Tour wants to preserve its advertising income but the UCI demands to the Tour that the money should be distributed," continued Rubiera. "The UCI looks for economic interests in new markets, like Poland and other places, which do not have importance in the cycling. But it should not have to be at the cost of other races that are historical and important."

Rubiera noticed that, "this pulse can be stopped," and said in that, "the fans are getting tired of the bad image that the cycling is showing." Rubiera commented, "there are riders who are accused for doping [in Operación Puerto], but there is not any arguments against them, and they are still prevented to compete. If somebody passes the limit, he will be sanctioned, but without dramatizing." The Spaniard concluded, "We are not united, as we could see when Voigt, who was [Ivan] Basso's team-mate, said that he [Basso] should not come back to competition again."