Going With The Gut

I have to say that after the kudos T-o-03 heaped on Oude Granny the day before, I was acutally at a loss for some material. Then I ran across this from Chris Selden at Pezcylingnews.com. Mind you, its only a snippet of the Euro Trash Thursday column regarding the Unibet.com mess (please click on the link provided as he does make some good points about this issue), but the last line in this excerpt invoked a guttural reaction. Search over, mind going...

"The ASO don’t seem to like Unibet because they are promoting an illegal business in France (gambling) – but is that really the issue? What about when they were known as MrBookmaker.com a couple of years ago? I saw that team race in France with my own eyes and not a word was spoken, despite the fact that their sponsor was a gambling organization. So what’s changed? Not much as far as I can tell, besides the fact that the Grand Tour Organizers were sick of the UCI telling them what to do and when. To this I can sympathise with the organizers – why shouldn’t they be able to invite who they want to their races?"

Whether the creation of the ProTour has actually succeeded is all its facets is another matter all together, and one which I won't discuss here because of it dauntingness. But one of the reasons for its inception was to insure that the best competition was at the grandest races. Listen, I'm all for nationalistic pride, but when you begin to exclude teams that have earned the right (by being competitive and winning races throughout the season) to participate in a race, then I think that race (and its fans) lose something greater. Take for instance the insistence of the Tour de France (the Grand Boucle!), pre-ProTour, to take as many French teams possible while excluding many of the top teams. Huh? What? When did that happen? How dare they?

Oude Granny doesn't even have to step into his Wayback Machine to show you why letting organizers invite who they want to their races isn't exactly the best things. Let's go back to the selection of the Tour de France teams in 2001. That year, Jean Marie LeBlanc actually made room for an extra 21st team, but choosing 5 wild card teams. So who did they choose?

Of the 5 chosen, they picked 2 French teams. Well Granny, that doesn't sound like squat!!

Let me break it down a bit. Of the 21 teams invited to the Tour that year, 8 were French teams, 5 of which were Division 2 teams. And of those 5 Division 2 teams, 2 were the wild card selections. Does that sound like a very competitive field??? And how do you select any Division 2 team over a more qualified Division 1 team?

Some of the more qualified teams left out that year were Mercury-Viatel and Team Coast. Mercury-Viatel could have been the second American based team to compete in the Tour, alongside Lance Armstrong's powerful US Postal squad. Instead, Mercury-Viatel, even with all the support Greg Lemond provided, went bankrupt after that season. Perhaps, if they were allowed to participate in that Tour, their sponsors would have bought into cycling and a young man living in San Diego at the time, Floyd Landis, would have ridden his first Tour.

As far as Team Coast, their exclusion meant that a two-time Vuelta winner and World Champion in Alex Zulle wasn't allowed to compete. Now flash forward 2 years from that somber moment, to a happier one, when Team Coast was finally allowed in to the Tour. How did they end up doing after being excluded year after year? Well, Team Coast actually went the way of Mercury-Viatel midseason, pulling their sponsorship. But the team stayed together and kept their Tour spot and re-emerged as Team Bianchi. The same Team Bianchi, with Jan Ullrich. And we all know what an exciting and memorable Tour that ended up being! It was the most competitive in ages, hands down.

Could you imagine what the 2001 Tour would have been like, if teams like Saeco (with Mario Cipollini), Mercury-Viatel, Coast, or Mercatone Uno (with Il Pirata) were chosen instead of Big Mat, Bonjour, Jean Delatour, or Ag2R-Prevoyance (all Division 2 French teams)?

But wait, its their race and they should be able to invite who they want.