- By Caley Fretz
- Published 4 hours ago
RCS Sport, organizer of the Giro d’Italia, announced on Wednesday its support of the calendar and structural reforms proposed by the UCI, reforms which have been rejected by RCS competitor Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO).
“RCS Sport has never been opposed to the Reform Project and is ready to analyse and discuss all technical issues related to it with all relevant parties involved, first and foremost with the UCI,” RCS said in a statement.
ASO threatened to pull its races, which include the Tour de France and Paris-Roubaix and total nearly 70 racing days throughout the year, from the UCI calendar if the reforms pass as they are currently written.
One major sticking point was a system of automatic relegation and promotion of teams from the WorldTour. RCS expressed support for such a system, in principle, “However RCS Sport believes this cannot be implemented until there is more stability within the sport,” the organization said.
RCS also addressed a number of allegations made by president of the Professional Cycling Council and vice president of the UCI, David Lappartient.
In an interview with Cyclingnews, Lappartient claimed that RCS and the Tour de Suisse have a contract with team group Velon for “better participation in their races.” RCS denied this claim, stating that the two organizations “had a contract in place but this was only for the production of films for broadcasting on digital and TV,” and that it only applied to the 2015 Giro d’Italia.
Velon CEO Graham Bartlett confirmed the RCS statement to VeloNews. “No race organizer has a deal with Velon now,” he said.
Lapartient also claimed that, to his knowledge, “more than 50 percent” of organizers were against the UCI’s reforms as currently described.
However, according to sources close to the reform process, organizers of the Tour de Suisse, InfrontRingier Sports and Entertainment, as well as Flanders Classics, the organization behind Ronde van Vlaanderen, Scheldeprijs, Dwars Door Vlaanderen, Gent-Wevelgem, and Brabantse Pijl, join RCS in their approval of the UCI reform document as it exists today.
ASO, according to the one source, is the outlier among race organizers in negotiations with the UCI.
FILED UNDER: News TAGS: ASO / RCS Sport / UCI
Caley Fretz
Associate Editor Caley Fretz can be found chasing races along the backroads of Europe or testing bikes and gear in the mountains outside Boulder, Colorado. If you can’t find him there, check the coffee shop across from VN World Headquarters.
