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French federation chief says he'll go to court if Paris-Nice riders are suspended

Published: Mar. 5, 2008

The head of the French Cycling Federation says he will go to court — and to French President Nicolas Sarkozy if necessary — if the international cycling federation UCI punishes pro cyclists taking part in next week's Paris-Nice race. Meanwhile the head of the U.S. cycling federation is urging all sides to negotiate and a group representing the teams has asked the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to intercede.

The race's owner, Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), has pulled the event from the UCI calendar because of an ongoing dispute over, among other things, the relationship between the sport's grand tours and the UCI's ProTour. Besides Paris-Nice, ASO owns the Tour de France, and other major events.

ASO plans to run Paris-Nice under the aegis of the French cycling federation; the UCI on Tuesday renewed its threat of punishing participating riders with fines or suspensions.

"This is dramatic. It is unacceptable that riders should be held hostage in this way," Jean Pitallier told Agence France Press.

"I have followed ministerial instructions and have only respected the law. We, the French federation and then the riders are victims of an intolerable situation.

"If suspensions result then of course we would have to have recourse to judicial action," he promised, adding the issue would go right to the top, as far as the Sarkozy's office.

USA Cycling's chief executive Steve Johnson, while urging the UCI and ASO to return to the bargaining table, echoed the UCI's recent statements warning riders that participation in Paris-Nice could be risky.

"The decision to place Paris-Nice on the (French) national calendar is effectively forcing riders to break the recognized rules that govern professional cycling; placing them at risk for penalties and suspensions that could ultimately affect their participation in the 2008 Olympic Games and World Championships," Johnson said in a statement.

"While we agree that the ProTour in its current structure should be revisited, we join the European Cycling Union in asking the French Cycling Federation to respect the established regulations of the sport, and implore all parties to return to the bargaining table to seek an acceptable solution in the best interest of professional cycling," Johnson said.

Johnson said the dispute "will only serve to create additional instability and uncertainty in our sport at a time when it most desperately needs some level of sensibility. Professional cycling cannot survive without teams, and teams cannot survive without sponsors; many teams are in renewal talks with their current sponsors, and many others are actively seeking new sponsorships. Anything less than a united front with regard to the international organization of professional cycling presents an additional obstacle in all of our efforts to attract the sponsors our sport needs to grow and flourish."

The group representing the ProTour teams, the IPCT, said Wednesday that they had appealed to CAS.

"In this affair the teams and even the riders find themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place," the IPCT said in a statement.