UCI to take legal action against GT organisers

UCI president Pat McQuaid as well as ProTour manager Alain Rumpf were at the start of Gent-Wevelgem today to support the team Unibet.com. Before the race, rumours subsisted that the Swedish team would not be allowed to start in the semi-classic because of the legal situation of its sponsor in Belgium.

But finally, Unibet.com was allowed to race by the organiser. While the team has been left out of the wildcard invitations for Tour de France organiser ASO's Classic races (Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Flèche Wallonne), on the grounds that the law in France and Belgium prohibited the online gaming company from advertising, the organiser of Gent-Wevelgem is less fearful of possible consequences. It would appear that while the law is similar in the two countries, Belgium does not enforce it at the moment.

McQuaid and Rumpf thereby made a point in the ongoing feud between the world governing body of cycling and the most powerful race organiser, ASO, and revealed that the power struggle is far from over. Now, the UCI is planning to file suit against ASO and RCS, the organiser of the Giro d'Italia and Tirreno-Adriatico. "There's no reason why Unibet should not have been invited to Tirreno-Adriatico. RCS broke their agreement [the 'peace deal' of March 5, 2007]. We're currently looking into the possibilities of taking legal action against ASO and RCS," McQuaid told Cyclingnews' Brecht Decaluwé at the start of the race in Deinze.