Professional Cycling For the Fans - Can someone please explain?
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Sea Green Sky
10-19-09, 03:12 PM
According to the UCI World Rankings (http://www.velonews.com/article/99407/contador-astana-carry-uci-world-rankings) both Bbox and Cofidis had more success than five other teams yet they did not get their UCI licenses renewed.
Can someone please help me to understand why Cofidis and Bbox get dumped while Silence-Lotto, Milram, Euskaltel-Euskadi, and AG2R all stay?
fixedpip
10-19-09, 05:14 PM
I was under the assumption that it was a combination:
i) Secure funding sources - (for example you have by 120,000 USD towards the cost of the biological passport program)
ii) Teams anti-doping policies and program.
iii) Politics
iv) Rankings and results
v) Squad sizes and quality of roster
Theres an article here which is more an opinion piece that goes into some of the details:
http://bicycling.com/blogs/boulderreport/2009/10/01/protour-gets-a-pruning/
USAZorro
10-19-09, 05:46 PM
According to the UCI World Rankings (http://www.velonews.com/article/99407/contador-astana-carry-uci-world-rankings) both Bbox and Cofidis had more success than five other teams yet they did not get their UCI licenses renewed.
Can someone please help me to understand why Cofidis and Bbox get dumped while Silence-Lotto, Milram, Euskaltel-Euskadi, and AG2R all stay?
To clarify, Bbox didn't get dumped. They weren't a ProTour team this past season.
I'm not sure what you're looking at. According to your own link, all those other teams appear farther up the rankings than Confidis or Bbox.
Sea Green Sky
10-19-09, 06:22 PM
I was under the assumption that it was a combination:
i) Secure funding sources - (for example you have by 120,000 USD towards the cost of the biological passport program)
ii) Teams anti-doping policies and program.
iii) Politics
iv) Rankings and results
v) Squad sizes and quality of roster
Theres an article here which is more an opinion piece that goes into some of the details:
http://bicycling.com/blogs/boulderreport/2009/10/01/protour-gets-a-pruning/
FTA: "...and Alexandre Vinokourov, who's cycling's equivalent of the crazy guy on the bus you try not to make eye contact with" :lol::lol::lol:
The author does make some good points about pro team over-crowding. Other sports do have automatic systems to trim the fat. For example on the PGA Tour everyone below the 125th on the money list at the end of the year looses full tour playing privileges for the next year. Below 150th (I think) and you have to go back to qualifying school.