Following the ASO announcement that it will pull all of its races, including the Tour de France, from the WorldTour calendar, Professional Cyclists Association (CPA) President Gianni Bugno "has called on the UCI to open the lines of communication between it and the ASO," according to CYCLING NEWS. The ASO has objected to the UCI's WorldTour reforms, with Tour de France Dir Christian Prudhomme calling the scheme a "closed system." The race has "long wanted free of the governing body's rules regarding which teams can be invited, and expressed concern that three-year licences for WorldTour teams would leave little room for teams to move into the top tier or to exit it." The riders and teams "are caught in the middle, and the CPA disagreed with the UCI's assertion that the WorldTour reforms were adopted with the consent of all stakeholders." A CPA press release said, "The association of the riders was in fact in favor of it but as long as all stakeholders, including the organizers, were also in favor of the new Reform. The CPA has noticed in recent weeks that the organizers and especially the ASO, are unwilling to accept the new guidelines of the UCI which are radically different from the original project" (CYCLING NEWS, 12/21).
NO AGREEMENT: The London GUARDIAN reported UCI President Brian Cookson has "denied his predecessor Hein Verbruggen’s claims that they have reached an agreement to end legal proceedings which would have seen the Dutchman retain his role as honorary president of the UCI." Verbruggen, who left his post as president in '05, had threatened legal action against cycling's governing body over what he described as an "outrageously biased, misleading and frequently wrong" investigation into the sport's doping past. Cookson has previously called for Verbruggen to step down but the Dutchman said that "they had reached an agreement." According to sources, the UCI also paid £29,000 ($42,952) "towards Verbruggen’s legal costs." However, Cookson "has denied that is the case and stated that any agreement with Verbruggen was now void" (GUARDIAN, 12/21).
