07 Worlds cancelled

iainf72

Starting to sound that way.

Or will the UCI just move them elsewhere?

Mr Bumble

:shock:

I cannot help but feel that is surrendering to the situation....

The worlds must be held there is still a champion who does not dope...

I hope they have the good sense to implement a very stringent selection criteria...any whiff of scandal and they are not invited....so no Di Luca etc

timoid.

Had me going there.

The sport must go on and celebrate each positive test as an advancement in the fight against dopers.

I think we are at the start of a permanent change for the better.

iainf72

No seriously.

Cycling4all is reporting it's in a German newspaper.

Ste_S

This is the page cycling4all are linking too :-

http://www.tagesschau.de/aktuell/meldungen/0,1185,OID7178588_NAV_REF1,00.html

Anyone speak german ?

timoid.

Crikey. I like the notice on the death of the Tour.

jibi

The 2007 World Championships are scheduled for the German city of Stuttgart, and the German government is supposed to contribute €150,000.

"For now we're holding on to that money," Schäuble said Saturday. "Stuttgart certainly doesn't want to risk its reputation as a sports city by hosting the last great competition of a sport wallowing in an ethical swamp."

http://www.spiegel.de/international/eur ... 52,00.html

In english

PeteinSQ

ethical swamp

Excellent turn of phrase.

TheBigOne

i have heard they are going to be moved...

to Astana

GroupOfOne MkII

Am pretty sure they'll go ahead, whether at Stuttgart or elsewhere, as the UCI won't want to lose that much face.

Also think about all the contracts, people etc relying on the race going ahead. I'd guess the UCI would stand to lose alot of money if they didn't take place.

And should the Women and Juniors be punished by not having their showpiece event just because of the behaviour of others?

calvjones

GroupOfOne MkII wrote:

Am pretty sure they'll go ahead, whether at Stuttgart or elsewhere, as the UCI won't want to lose that much face.

Also think about all the contracts, people etc relying on the race going ahead. I'd guess the UCI would stand to lose alot of money if they didn't take place.

And should the Women and Juniors be punished by not having their showpiece event just because of the behaviour of others?

Good point Group. Just suspend the Men's Elite races and devote the coverage to the Women's races instead. That would sent a significant message.

Langenberg

Don't think this says that the world championships aren't going to go ahead. It says that the UCI has signed an anti doping declaration and that this was a condition for the event to go ahead (although the German interior ministry denies that there has been an ultimatum... it does sound like it though).

LangerDan

The Tour of Ireland is due to start here in about a months time and several ProTour teams have already signed up. The prime sponsor is Failte Ireland, the government -funded tourism body. I'd say there is a high probability of the plug being pulled in the next fortnight. McQuaid was in Dublin on Monday. Rescue mission perhaps?

Moose11

LangerDan wrote:

The Tour of Ireland is due to start here in about a months time and several ProTour teams have already signed up. The prime sponsor is Failte Ireland, the government -funded tourism body. I'd say there is a high probability of the plug being pulled in the next fortnight. McQuaid was in Dublin on Monday. Rescue mission perhaps?

I really hope it isn't, I was planning on maybe going down on my bike to catch a stage or two.

Rob Sallnow

I doubt it would be cancelled....at worst I'm sure they could just switch it to Verona or something.

notanotherhill

I read in a paper here this evening that one of the swiss papers has said its not publishing race reports from the tour any more. It will however continue to publish any doping stories that come from the tour.
Unless something serious is done quickly, the sport is screwed

afx237vi

notanotherhill wrote:

I read in a paper here this evening that one of the swiss papers has said its not publishing race reports from the tour any more. It will however continue to publish any doping stories that come from the tour.
Unless something serious is done quickly, the sport is screwed

Isn't that what the British press does already?

notanotherhill

yeah absolutley. and if its any consolation to you the irish press is exactly the same. You'll see doping stories then go looking for the results and they havent even bothered to print them

method

calvjones wrote:

GroupOfOne MkII wrote:

Am pretty sure they'll go ahead, whether at Stuttgart or elsewhere, as the UCI won't want to lose that much face.

Also think about all the contracts, people etc relying on the race going ahead. I'd guess the UCI would stand to lose alot of money if they didn't take place.

And should the Women and Juniors be punished by not having their showpiece event just because of the behaviour of others?

Good point Group. Just suspend the Men's Elite races and devote the coverage to the Women's races instead. That would sent a significant message.

Who says the women & juniors don't dope?

iainf72

method wrote:

calvjones wrote:

GroupOfOne MkII wrote:

Who says the women & juniors don't dope?

Only an idiot.

ricadus

afx237vi wrote:

notanotherhill wrote:

I read in a paper here this evening that one of the swiss papers has said its not publishing race reports from the tour any more. It will however continue to publish any doping stories that come from the tour.
Unless something serious is done quickly, the sport is screwed

Isn't that what the British press does already?

Certainly the BBC – unless a Brit wins something, in which case the "Team GB" angle trumps taking a negative approach.

It's surely partly because ITV (and Channel 4 in the past) have TV right to the Tour, so negative coverage by the Beeb is a kind of spoiler tactic.

Ratkilla

GroupOfOne MkII wrote:

Am pretty sure they'll go ahead, whether at Stuttgart or elsewhere, as the UCI won't want to lose that much face.

Also think about all the contracts, people etc relying on the race going ahead. I'd guess the UCI would stand to lose alot of money if they didn't take place.

And should the Women and Juniors be punished by not having their showpiece event just because of the behaviour of others?

The UCI don't have the balls to do much about anything. They are as useful as a chocolate fireguard. All these schnapps sodden old gits in their blazers running about with their hair on fire blithering on and on and blaming everyone but themselves. Totally inept. They should retire.
What the UCI will have to deal with is the fact that ASO stitched them up politically and so adeptly. So much so that the UCI are on the verge of irrelevance.
Never mind the credibility of the Tour. The crediility of the UCI as a governing body is shot to pieces. The sooner the blazers are put out to pasture the better.
What we need is a Platini style figure as president not some career administrator type who has lost contact with reality.
So the World Championships will go ahead with as much blithering and blah blah blahing as ever. But will it and the UCI still be relevant when the time comes?

GroupOfOne MkII

method wrote:

calvjones wrote:

GroupOfOne MkII wrote:

Am pretty sure they'll go ahead, whether at Stuttgart or elsewhere, as the UCI won't want to lose that much face.

Also think about all the contracts, people etc relying on the race going ahead. I'd guess the UCI would stand to lose alot of money if they didn't take place.

And should the Women and Juniors be punished by not having their showpiece event just because of the behaviour of others?

Good point Group. Just suspend the Men's Elite races and devote the coverage to the Women's races instead. That would sent a significant message.

Who says the women & juniors don't dope?

I didn't :? What I meant was the current fuore/attention/etc is surrounding the men's professional racing, thus I don't particularly see the point in punishing people who haven't done anything (or at least haven't been persistently caught doing things in the glare of the world's media).

For the record I think ALL the events at the World's should go on, BUT with very very stringent anti-doping checks and a massively regulated entry list (ie the organisers reserve the right to refuse certain names). Then again if you announced everyone (I know, it'd cost alot, but you don't actually have to do it, just say you will be) would be undergoing the full whack of doping controls, I bet you'd get some interesting names suffering 'fatigue' and pulling out.