UCI

BOULDER, Colo. (VN) – The USA Pro Cycling Challenge will return with an upgrade in 2012 after the UCI last week awarded the event 2.HC status. The second-year Colorado race will upgrade to the highest registration level short of the World Tour and will run August 20-26.

The UCI has decided to postpone the introduction of an outright race ban in all pro racing for at least another year, smoothing the way for the top professional teams to attend next month's Tour of Beijing.

World cycling chiefs confirmed Saturday that the 18 WorldTour leading teams will compete at the inaugural Tour of Beijing in October after a "truce" had been called amid threat of a boycott.

UCI Press Release on Gerard Vroomen comments

PARIS, Aug 11, 2011 (AFP) - World cycling's ruling body has angrily hit back at suggestions by Cervélo co-founder Gerard Vroomen that the UCI has lacked bite in implementing its own biological passport program.

World cycling's ruling body is set to look into the reasons behind a raft of crashes which have decimated the field during the first nine stages of the Tour de France.

UCI press release on Alexander Kolobnev doping positive

The professional team’s association on Friday continued the public debate with the UCI over enforcement of a rule requiring saddles to be horizontal.

Teams' association press release on UCI saddle inspection

The UCI will begin random bike controls at the Tour de France

This time the UCI is making sure that saddles are "horizontal."

The UCI is taking a second look at the 6.8kg (14.99lb) weight limit currently inflicted on race bikes.

Readers chime in on the UCI's technical rules — would the world be better off with no UCI?

The UCI issued a warning Thursday advising teams and riders that several blood samples are undergoing expert scrutiny in advance of the Tour de France to determine whether blood doping or other forms of manipulation have taken place.

The UCI management committee has approved measures that would prevent anyone who has violated cycling’s anti-doping regulations to be employed in the sport.

The UCI's press releases urges the media and fans to show Contador respect.

The UCI's management committee on Thursday urged fans and the media to show the "utmost sense of responsibility" toward Alberto Contador at the Tour de France.

Pro riders would be able to switch teams in the first half of August under certain conditions under a rule change approved by the UCI's Professional Cycling Council Wednesday in Maastricht, Netherlands.

In a statement on its website Monday the UCI said it "categorically rejects" the allegations made by Tyler Hamilton on Sunday's episode of the CBS News program "60 Minutes."

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UCI president Pat McQuaid apologized to pro riders about a leaked list published in L’Equipe this week, but staunchly defended the biological passport program.

STATELINE, Nevada (VN) – Christian Vande Velde said he went through a range of emotions Friday after learning of the leak to French publication L’Equipe of the UCI’s suspicious riders list from the 2010 Tour de France.

PARIS (AFP) — The International Cycling Union (UCI) on Thursday criticized the French sports daily L'Equipe for planning to publish results from anti-doping tests taken on the eve of the 2010 Tour de France.

The UCI is on a tear these days, regulating, banning and measuring every millimeter of a bike and its components. Lennard Zinn is clearly annoyed.

A reader wants to know why Floyd Landis is being sued in Switzerland and what would happen if he lost.

Following the announcement by the UCI that it has filed a defamation suit against Floyd Landis, the deposed Tour de France winner says he is ready to fight the case in an effort to expose “the corruption within cycling.”

The UCI announced on Wednesday that the governing body, as well as its current and former presidents, have filed a defamation suit against deposed 2006 Tour de France winner Floyd Landis.

Johan Bruyneel and Pat McQuaid discuss the radio issue, but only one of them feels chatty afterward.

Tension between the UCI and the top pro teams is reaching a breaking point over the use of race radios in elite professional races. Things got so bad that teams walked out of a meeting last week in Belgium that was supposed to be a sit-down between the major players to hammer out an understanding. Instead of reaching a common ground, both sides seem further apart than ever.

Alberto Contador should know his fate before the start of the Tour de France. That’s according to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which promised it would make a ruling on the long-running clenbuterol case before the start of the season’s most important race.

UCI president Pat McQuaid told The Associated Press that an appeal in Alberto Contador’s doping case was prompted by fears of political meddling within the Spanish cycling federation.

In a season in which the Tour of the Gila and the Tour of the Battenkill each were forced to abandon plans to upgrade to UCI registration, there is some good news on the domestic event front as the sixth annual Alexian Brothers Tour of Elk Grove has been upgraded to the UCI calendar.

So what is the basis for the UCI’s appeal? Are they going to attack the evidence — or lack of it — or are they going to go after Spain’s decision? Where does WADA come in? Why is Contador still racing?

Dario Cioni has a front-row seat to how decisions are made on such topics as the controversial ruling to phase out race radio.

USA Cycling on Tuesday reversed course and announced it would ban race radios at national level events, including National Racing Calendar and national championship events.

UCI president Pat McQuaid cried foul over USA Cycling’s recent decision to allow race radios in its sanctioned events this season and said the federation has been “hijacked” by special interests.

BANYOLES, Spain (VN) — It’s coming down to the wire on whether or not the UCI will decide to appeal the Spanish federation’s decision to clear Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Sungard) on doping charges in his long-running clenbuterol case.

With just days to go before the UCI must decide whether or not it will appeal the Spanish cycling federation's ruling to clear Alberto Contador, UCI president Pat McQuaid says that the three-time Tour de France champion is not receiving preferential treatment.

UCI president Pat McQuaid is digging in his heels over the race radio issue and promises there will be no moving backward.

At a meeting in Milan Thursday, the Professional Cycling Council decided to recommend a four-year suspension, rather than the current two-years, for the first doping offense "involving a serious substance."

The UCI on Thursday said cycling teams' decision to boycott the Tour of Beijing will not affect the organization's policy on race radios.

"President McQuaid regretfully noted this new element of tension in the situation. It will not, however, change the UCI’s position on the subject. "

UCI officials say they will push ahead with plans to hold the Tour of Beijing despite a call Thursday for a protest by the top professional teams of the inaugural event scheduled for October.

When the French Cycling Federation sanctioned Paris-Nice 2008, in violation of UCI rules, the UCI fined and suspended the French governing body for six months. After its March 11 decision to allow the use of in-race radios in National Racing Calendar events, USA Cycling could be facing a similar fate.

Or maybe not. The UCI clarifies its rule on time trial shifters, causing some team mechanics to get creative

Angelo Zomegnan wants the 2011 Giro d’Italia to be bigger than ever and it will be, at least this year.

The UCI and the French anti-doping agency are working together on this year's Paris-Nice after two years of squabbling.

AIGCP press release on radio ban, March 4, 2011

Press Release: UCI President meets with AIGCP delegation

UCI president Pat McQuaid met with a delegation from the cycling teams association (AIGCP) on Thursday in Switzerland to discuss the race radio ban.

A reader asks if a product long used by pros is only now coming to the market, how can it be 'legal' under UCI rules?

The UCI on Tuesday said it had received notice of the Spanish cycling federation's decision to clear Alberto Contador of doping charges, and said it would examine the reasoning behind the decision before announcing its next step. The UCI has 30 days to decide whether to appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Danilo Di Luca may resume competition after paying a fine relating to a recent doping ban, according to the UCI.

Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Cervélo) won Sunday’s Trofeo Palma, the first round in the five-day 2011 Mallorca Challenge, but it appears that the UCI may refuse to recognize the legitimacy of the event after riders refused to compete without radio earpieces as per the governing body’s edict.

The Univest grand Prix organizer weighs in on the dispute between the Tour of the Battenkill and USA Cycling.

Former USA Cycling president Jim Ochowicz has downplayed allegations from Floyd Landis that he has been involved in political maneuvering between U.S. riders and the UCI.

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The cycling union announced Friday that non-European events must invite their regions’ top teams. For the U.S., the region is the Americas, and this means three Colombian squads may earn invites to the U.S.’s biggest races, likely displacing some U.S. teams.

After what the World’s Federation for the Sporting Goods Industry (WFSGI) called a “fruitful” meeting with the UCI, the cycling unions released a revised approval process Friday.

PALMA DE MAJORCA, Spain (AFP) - Tour de France champion Alberto Contador feels he has been "unfairly punished" by Spain's cycling federation, which has proposed suspending him for one year for a positive doping test, his spokesman said Thursday.

The UCI on Thursday sought to clarify that a one-year ban for Alberto Contador — announced by the rider's spokesman Wednesday — is only a preliminary proposal by the Spanish Cycling Federation.

The event's lawyer, in a letter sent to the cycling bodies Thursday, said their recent move allowing top teams at National Racing Calendar criteriums — but not at road races like Battenkill — is "exclusionary and monopolistic."

You’ve probably never heard of Robbert De Kock or the World Federation for the Sporting Goods Industry, but pay attention. As the secretary general of the WFSGI, De Kock may be the man to unite the cycling industry and give it real power in its dealings with the UCI.

The UCI rocked the cycling industry in December when it announced that a new bicycle approval process would be implemented on January 1, 2011. The UCI later delayed the program by a month.