UCI president threatens action against Tour organisers

UCI president Pat McQuaid has threatened to take action against Tour de France organisers ASO after declaring they had broken an agreement with cycling's governing body.

"The agreement has clearly been broken by them and we'll now study what action we can take," McQuaid told Reuters yesterday.

McQuaid made the comments after ASO did not invite Swedish ProTour team Unibet.com to take part in this month's Fleche Wallone and Liege-Bastogne-Liege one-day races, which they also organise.

ASO have justified their decision saying laws in France and Belgium do not permit online betting companies like Unibet to advertise in those countries.

Spokesman Matthieu Desplats said ASO were not aware of McQuaid's comments but added: "The law in Belgium is exactly the same as in France.

"You can't invite a company involved in online betting, it's against the law. The way they interpret the law in Belgium is different but the law is the same."

However, the Unibet.com team were due to take part in this week's Ghent-Wevelgem race, which is not organised by ASO.

"I've been told the law they are talking about does not operate in Belgium and it's an archaic law in France," McQuaid said.

"It's all because of a couple of individuals' attitude towards this team, the ProTour and the UCI. They want to kill the ProTour."

The ProTour was started in 2005 but the initiative has been plagued by a series of disagreements between the UCI, organisers of the big tours, teams and national federations.

In January, ASO turned down Unibet.com's application for Paris-Nice.

The UCI dropped the race from the ProTour and threatened to sanction teams that took part.