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Lappartient is worse for cycling than Cookson?

fmk_RoI said:
Between his close ties to ASO and the destruction he was wrought on women's cycling in France, is UCI president David Lappartient worse for cycling than his predecessor Brian Cookson?


When Cookson was head of BC the Premier Calendar sharnk and domestic racing went from a decent calendar of road racing to city centre crits.
 
Re:

hrotha said:
Are close ties with ASO necessarily a bad thing? I'm not well informed enough to tell.

I suppose it depends on your views on doping. If you think it is prevalent and everyone knows the yes, it's probably bad as you would assume ASO want to avoid scandal. If you think doping is no longer prevalent and people want to catch the cheats then it might be a good thing as they can work together. And every shade of grey in-between exists too.

In terms of racing, it's probably neither good or bad.
 
Re: Re:

King Boonen said:
hrotha said:
Are close ties with ASO necessarily a bad thing? I'm not well informed enough to tell.

I suppose it depends on your views on doping. If you think it is prevalent and everyone knows the yes, it's probably bad as you would assume ASO want to avoid scandal. If you think doping is no longer prevalent and people want to catch the cheats then it might be a good thing as they can work together. And every shade of grey in-between exists too.

In terms of racing, it's probably neither good or bad.
For a brief time, during the Pro Tour wars, ASO led on fighting doping. Then the Widow Amaury ordered that scandals were more damaging than doping, so they fell back into step.
 
It's worth considering some of the things Lappartient is promising to do, so here's a few bits from his manifesto.
ENHANCE THE ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITY OF THE UCI PRESIDENT AND THE MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE
Take power back from UCI staff like Martin Gibbs?
STRENGTHEN THE UCI’S ABILITY, AS AN INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION, TO WIELD INFLUENCE IN THE GLOBAL SPORT MOVEMENT
Brow-beat the IOC into giving us our seat back?
RESPECT THE UCI’ ENGAGEMENTS AND FOLLOW THROUGH ON PROPOSED REFORMS
Have a vision for the future?
 
This next one is a biggie and he will be judged on it:
REGROUP OUR 4 CYCLING OLYMPIC DISCIPLINES FOR A SINGLE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP EVERY 4 YEARS
A combined quadrennial World Championships, track and road, BMX and MTB, once every four years. How many countries could host that?

Related to that:
CREATE A WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP FOR “SMALLER COUNTRIES”
Rainbow jerseys for everybody in the audience? (Do you know how many rainbow jerseys the UCI currently gives out each year? Hundreds.)
 
This sound familiar?
MAKE MORE VIABLE THE STRUCTURE OF WOMEN’S CYCLING
You'll have all heard it by now, how he's single-handedly killed women's cycling in France. So take this how you will, but he is saying he'll encourage organisers to run parallel women's races, like what ASO does that the Tour and the Vuelta.
INCREASE WOMEN REPRESENTATION IN THE GOVERNANCE OF INTERNATIONAL CYCLING
Did you see how male Congress was?
 
More Big Ticket thinking:
BOOST THE ECONOMIC MODEL OF PROFESSIONAL CYCLING
Yeah, yeah, yeah, heard it all before, isn't this what those Outer Limits goonies chatter on about when no one's listening? But this:
STUDY THE POSSIBILITY OF JOINTLY SELLING THE REMAINING TV RIGHTS BELONGING TO RACE ORGANIZERS UNDER THE UCI AUTHORITY AND ON THE BASIS OF THE ORGANIZERS’ GENERAL WILL
For those who don't know, that's where it all started with Hein Verbruggen, a grab for the sport's TV money, and that led to the growing chasm between the UCI and ASO (it also led to Verbruggen being offered a gig at ASO - is that where Lappartient sees his future?).

He also wants to:
ORGANIZE ELITE RACES INTO THREE CATEGORIES: GRANDS TOURS, SERIES REGROUPING THE “CLASSIC CYCLE RACES” IN ONE DAY AND SERIES GATHERING “STAGE” RACES
Three rankings?
 
This next one looks easy but has the potential to be problematic:
IMPROVE THE ATTRACTIVENESS OF RACES
The issue?
It is clear however that some races, particularly those with multiple stages, have become tedious, which is leading to a decrease in fan interest and fewer television viewers. The misuse of certain new technologies may have had an impact on this issue by making the outcome of some of our races too predictable.
Let me hear you say it: ban race radios! Ban power metres! Or as he puts it:
ENCOURAGE INNOVATION AND THE USE OF MORE CONDUCIVE NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN CYCLING
(Bring bank the blackboards!)
 
This next one looks ordinary:
RE-EVALUATE THE CURRENT MISSION OF THE PROFESSIONAL CYCLING COUNCIL
Basically, he wants to reshape the CCP. Which is going to mean a new job for someone. Like, I don't know, a man who threatened to throw his hat into the election ring but didn't? Come on down, Tom Van Damme! The price is right for you!
 
The full manifesto is available here. There's more in it than is posted above, if you think anything important hasn't been highlighted, add it to the pyre. It'll be interesting to come back in 12 months or four years and see just how much - or how little - of this is actually achieved.
 

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