CH 1860 Aigle / Suisse
www.uci.ch
UNION CYCLISTE INTERNATIONALE
President
AIGCP
Mr Jonathan Vaughters
President
6 rue Hector Berlioz
22300 Lannion
Aigle, 21 April 2011
Ref: Presidency
Dear Jonathan,
It will not surprise you that you are seen as one of the leaders of the group of teams that are apparently considering to split from the UCI and set up a new cycling circuit. We refer to press articles on this subject and we also have other sources of information.
Of course if this were to be the case a conflict between teams and the UCI would be very helpful for shifting the blame to UCI and trying to find some understanding with the public and potential sponsors for such breakaway.
It is clear that your opposition to the ban of radios fits perfectly in this scenario, the more so because this opposition and its fierceness cannot be justified by the kind of arguments you invoke against it.
It is clear also that your behaviour regarding last Monday’s meeting in Brussels had no other purpose. On the one hand you did not condescend to attend but on the other you requested to change the agenda at the very last minute and according to my information you participated in the decision of the teams to leave the room. This meeting was convened by the UCI for the benefit of the teams and included a variety of topics and presentations.
It was the UCI’s prerogative to decide the format of the meeting and indeed the content. The decision by some teams, including yours, to walk out in advance of a presentation by some well respected media representatives, so critically important to our sport, showed a lack of professionalism and downright bad manners rarely seen. However strong your feelings, you should have given the media representatives the courtesy of listening to them. Also if your allies are convinced that you have valuable arguments against the radio ban, why did they walk away instead of entering into a discussion after the presentations that were made?
Now you must understand that you cannot expect from UCI that it continues to work for and invest in a team that is planning to break away from the UCI and to participate in a series not sanctioned by the UCI.
2/2
This will include, in the first instance the Biological Passport, the cost of which exceeds the contribution paid by the teams.
So therefore and unless there is written confirmation from you to UCI that you are not and will not be directly or indirectly involved in discussions to set up a breakaway league or a series which runs counter to article 1.2.019 before April 30th then as and from May 1st the full cost of the Biological Passport system will be invoiced. Should you fail to pay these invoices, the program on your team will be scaled down to the level that your team is actually paying for.
On the other hand if you would confirm that you are not and will not be involved and this would turn out not to be the case, you will be held responsible for the real cost of the blood passport programme on your team and any other costs or damage incurred by UCI because it relied on your statement.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
I remain,
Yours sincerely,
Pat McQuaid
President
