ASO

USPS Conspiracy Loose Ends

There are still unexploded bombs from World War Two. Every now and then one is discovered buried deep in the ground, often during construction work. Residents are evacuated, a security cordon is put in place, a military bomb squad arrives to defuse the defunct device and within a day or two construction work resumes.

Cycling has its buried bombs too. An axis of deceit carpet-bombed European roads, bridges and mountain passes with syringes and vials some of which are only blowing up today. Yesterday’s explosive stories about Lance Armstrong and others involved in the squad that went from US Postal to Radioshack was just one example. Only headlines and text got sometimes warped by the shock. Here’s a quick look at a few of the issues.

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Revenue Sharing: Chump Change or Structural Change?

A bicycle race is a simple affair with some riders, a start and a finish.  But the organisation and management of professional cycling is complicated by rules, law, money and business.

The news that pro cycling teams could get a share of the TV rights money paid by broadcasters would mark a significant change to the way business is done today. Here is a look at some of the issues surrounding revenue sharing. For now we don’t have much detail so it remains to be seen whether this is just some extra cash for the teams or a structural change to the way the sport is organised.

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Dauphiné route unveiled

EDIT: since publishing this in March I’ve put a full preview online. Go here: https://inrng.com/dauphine for full stage analysis, the jerseys, the history and much more.

ASO have unveiled the route of the 2012 Critérium du Dauphiné. The 8 day stage race is a great contest in its own right but also resembles the Tour de France in more ways than one.

Just like last year’s edition, the Dauphiné will feature some of the same roads as the Tour, making it an ideal test ahead of July. Here’s a summary of the route.

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Critérium International preview

A very quick look at the Critérium International race that takes place on the French island of Corsica this weekend.

Many will have eyes on this Sunday’s Gent-Wevelgem race. Rightly so but 1,200km away we’ll see the likes of Cadel Evans, Frank Schleck, Chris Froome and others going head to head in a time trial today and summit finish tomorrow, all with the stunning island scenery on roads to be used for the Grand Départ of the Tour de France next year.

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Tour of Oman preview

The Tour of Oman starts tomorrow. You might have seen images from Qatar but just because pro cycling continues in the Gulf region, don’t think this race is the same. Instead the Tour of Oman is very different, whether it is the landscapes, the country, the people or the vicious summit finish on Stage 5.

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ASO say “non” to UCI

UCI seeks new funding for its race promotion activities

Last year saw the Tour of Beijing run for the first time. A unique race, one major difference was they way it was organised and promoted. To summarise the UCI, cycling’s governing body, set up a corporate venture called Global Cycling Promotions (GCP) to run the race.

GCP caused all sorts conflicts of interest. Instead of governing the sport from above, the UCI became an economic agent alongside many it seeks to regulate. One minute the idea was to globalise the sport, the next it was to generate income for the UCI. Plus it turned out GCP was created after the UCI siphoned money paid into a fund in the name of the top teams to use as the businesses seed capital, a fact which irritated several squads.

Now the UCI is seeking to bolster GCP. It was been approaching various sources asking them to subscribe to the business in order to provide additional capital. A report by Bloomberg suggests the UCI has approached ASO, the company behind the Tour de France. Only ASO said non. As a result the UCI is pitching to wealthy individuals to see if they will invest. Bloomberg’s report is notable for four reasons:

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Tour de France wildcards?

The Giro d’Italia announced the four teams invited to take part in the race last week. The choice of Team NetApp caused some controversy but that’s all part of the fun and I was pleased to see race direttore Michele Acquarone setting out the conditions before and explaining the timing and then commenting on the picks afterwards. And today we’ve learned of the six teams invited to the Tour of Flanders in April.

By contrast the wildcard picks for the Tour de France are a mystery. I’m told we’ll hear some time in February and the criteria for an invitation to the world’s biggest bike race are a mystery. Is a French exam involved?

Jokes aside, we can guess organisers ASO want some French riders in the race and also to invite some exciting teams for the race. With this in mind, here’s a look at the candidates for one of the four golden tickets this July.

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Breakaway leagues, an ongoing story

logo-edmond-rothschild

A breakaway is a common term in cycle racing, used when riders escape from the bunch. Only now “breakaway” is taking on another meaning: an attempt by some to take the sport away from the UCI.

Cyclingnews.com reports of a breakaway league involving financial group Rothschild. I gather this was earlier reported in the excellent Rouleur Magazine but perhaps the distribution was a touch too exclusive and nobody picked up on it.

In addition to the report by Daniel Benson I can reveal the plans involved a full calendar of races including the Tour de France, several classics and stage races and that Garmin/Slipstream boss Jonathan Vaughters was involved. I understand that the Tour of California and the Tour Down Under were amongst the races willing to join. I gather the Amaury family had words with the Rothschild group to pour come cold water on the deals but that others are continuing to work on a potential deal to include ASO.

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Bringing the Tour to your city… or village

Revel départ

Regional newspapers are big in France, selling more than the national dailies. Open a local newspaper and you don’t have to turn many pages before you find the latest on the grape-picking harvest or minor traffic accidents. It reinforces the pleasant idea that not much happens in rural France, there just isn’t enough bad news to report.

For many places in France the passage of the Tour de France is the highlight of the year or even the decade. In a great piece Le Monde today reports on the importance of a stage visiting French towns. There are 36,000 mayors, from Paris down to tiny villages, and most of them would love to see the race visit their corner of France.

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Wielerleaks, when a leak is better than a drip

Tour presentation

Yesterday saw the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia routes leaked on to the internet. Conspiracy or cock-up?

Both races like to unveil the route at a set-piece presentation, the chance to showcase the event, to explain the route and construct a narrative around the route to unite the stages into a three week story. For example in 2010 we had the celebration of the Col du Tourmalet and the Pyrenees in general, 2011 saw the same in the Alps thanks to the Col du Galibier. This year’s Giro d’Italia celebrated 150 years of Italian unity. We’ll see what the message for 2012 is on Sunday for the Giro and the following Tuesday for the Tour.

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