The UCI has revealed that it is to scrap the Tour of Beijing, just three years after former president Pat McQuaid launched the five-day race amid much fanfare – and controversy. The move is in line with a pre-electoral pledge from current president Brian Cookson to remove conflicts of interest and ensure greater transparency.
Confirmation that next month’s edition of the race will be the last came yesterday as the governing body released the 2015 UCI WorldTour calendar.
First held in October 2011, the Tour of Beijing is organised by Global Cycling Promotions, a company set up by the UCI with McQuaid as president and UCI official Alan Rumpf as director.
But concerns were expressed by many about potential conflicts of interest between a governing body and a race promoter being effectively one and the same body.
As blogger Inner Ring said in April 2011: “It’s one thing to encourage cycling around the world, to facilitate and encourage the spread of the sport around the world. But it’s quite another when you set up a private sports promotion business to do this for yourself.”
Cookson, who replaced McQuaid as president 12 months ago said in his manifesto prior to the election in Florence that “the operations and status of… GCP… are unclear even to those within the UCI.”
He added that once elected, “I will ensure absolute transparency of its purpose and function and will eliminate GCP’s conflicts of interest with other race promoters.
“Its focus should shift to elevating existing and new races around the world. This can be done by providing development capital and expertise in a way that shares the benefits equitably with the independent organisers and national federations.”
Under McQuaid, GCP had planned to introduce a second race in China, the Tour of Hangzhou, to the WorldTour calendar. The scheduled debut edition in 2012 did not take place and the event was also postponed last year and, following Cookson’s election, has been quietly dropped.
Following a meeting of the Professional Cycling Council (PCC) in Ponferrada, Cookson said: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank the organisers of the Tour of Beijing as we head towards the fourth and final edition of that race and the role it has played in helping to build the profile of road racing in Asia.”
The PCC said that this year’s top-flight racing did prove that its efforts to globalise the sport were bearing fruit, including MTN-Qhubeka becoming the first African team to compete in a Grand Tour, at the Vuelta, and the leader’s maglia rosa in the Giro d’Italia not once being worn by a European this year.
It added that consultation was planned reform of the men’s professional calendar and commercial strategy, that it would “be fully implemented by 2017 in spirit of consensus,” and that “the final details of the reform plan will be shared with all stakeholders on the occasion of the UCI WorldTour Seminar in December this year.”
2015 UCI WorldTour calendar
January
Jan 20-25: Santos Tour Down Under
March
Mar 8-15: Paris-Nice
Mar 11-17: Tirreno-Adriatico
Mar 22: Milan-San Remo
Mar 23-29: Volta a Catalunya
Mar 27: E3 Harelbeke
Mar 29: Gent-Wevelgem
April
Apr 5: Tour of Flanders
Apr 6-11: Tour of the Basque Country
Apr 12: Paris-Roubaix
Apr 19: Amstel Gold Race
Apr 22: La Fleche Wallonne
Apr 26: Liege-Bastogne-Liege
Apr 28-May 3: Tour de Romandie
May
Apr 28-May 3: Tour de Romandie
May 9-31: Giro d’Italia
June
Jun 7-14: Criterium du Dauphine
Jun 13-21: Tour de Suisse
July
Jul 4-26: Tour de France
August
Aug 1: Clasica San Sebastian
Aug 2-8: Tour of Poland
Aug 10-16: Eneco Tour
Aug 22-Sep 13: Vuelta a Espana
Aug 23: Vattenfall Cyclassics
Aug 30: GP Ouest France – Plouay
September
Aug 22-Sep 13: Vuelta a Espana
Sep 11: GP de Quebec
Sep 13: GP de Montreal
October
Oct 4: Il Lombardia
5 thoughts on “Tour of Beijing scrapped as Cookson fulfils manifesto pledge over GCP conflict of interest”
I can applaud the clearing up
I can applaud the clearing up of the conflicts of interest and dodgy dealing but I still wonder what the sustainable future of the sport will be when the race programme is so Old World/Eurocentric.
Will / should cycling around some soggy parts of the low countries persist whilst an entire large and highly populated continent is left out?
Heritage is great but an eye to the future is still important.
Nixster wrote:I can applaud
… and that’s *exactly* why FIFA voted for the 2022 WC to be held in Qatar too. So that sandy regions of the Earth wouldn’t be ‘left out’.
I reckon McQuaid, given access to enough brown envelopes, could even have beaten Blatter for presidency of FIFA.
Pat McQuaid makes Bernie
Pat McQuaid makes Bernie Ecclestone look clean.
Good
It was a boring race
Good
It was a boring race anyway which extended the season beyond its natural point. Nothing enjoyable about watching professional riders ruin their lungs riding through smog. I’m sure if China as a whole was serious about it they could fund their own pro team and come to Europe. Sometimes Globalisation just takes things too far, everyone just gets greedy.
i think it’s important that
i think it’s important that China etc are given solid opportunities to hold races, they do after all have enough money to stage them instead of many of the races in europe.
whilst i understand the conflict of interest angle, there is the flip side that perhaps ASO et al have tried to get races held over there to no avail, the Chinese culture is very hot on brand/recognition and they are far more likely to initiate races like this through GCP if they know there is that direct link with the UCI.
having said that crappy air, and suspicious meat are good enough reasons to not do it!