Pat McQuaid and the UCI try to get past the ProTour problems by announcing a world calendar (Image credit: Gregor Brown)
Following the announcement that the UCI and EPA (Editions Philippe Amaury, the owner of ASO and Société du Tour de France) had had discussions about the future of world cycling and that the governing body would introduce a new structure to try to solve ongoing political divisions in the sport, Cyclingnews' Shane Stokes gathered some initial reactions to the news.
Gerolsteiner's Hans-Michael Holczer has been heavily involved in discussions between teams and the other parties, and said that the initial signs were encouraging. However he stated that it was too early to give a definitive reaction. "The teams put a lot of pressure, starting the initiative to solve the problem," he said. "But now, I am still waiting for something like a contract for more details. Right now, I don't have the position of the organisers to see exactly what it all means. So I won't make much comment on this.
"However what I will say is that it seems to be pretty interesting. I find a lot of proposals in there that the teams [previously] made to the UCI, and something of the contract we signed with the organisers. A lot of the ideas that we had are there, but before giving a final comment on that, I think we should see the details of what has been signed between ASO, the organisers and the UCI. Then we can give [proper] comments on it."
Fellow ProTour team manager Gerry van Gerwen (Milram) also gave a tentative thumbs up, while stating that he is waiting for more details to emerge before knowing how significant the news is.
"I saw the press release this morning, and I saw the letter from [Pat] McQuaid to the teams," he said. "I have a lot of questions, of course, and I think everyone has. But that will come later.
"My first reaction is that it is great that they have talked with each other, and that there is something like an agreement. But I saw no specific reaction from ASO in that press release. That was a little bit strange…it was only a message from the UCI. There is no statement in it from ASO, so I am waiting for that."
