Is ASO becoming too powerful

[girofan]

After watching the TdF 2010 presentation it seems as though ASO has an increasing stranglehold over cycle racing and associated media reports.Anyone else getting the same vibe?

 

[Chuffy]

After watching the TdF 2010 presentation it seems as though ASO has an increasing stranglehold over cycle racing and associated media reports.Anyone else getting the same vibe?

What do you mean? After all, they do own the TdF.

 

[yello]

Personally, I reckon the answer is probably... maybe. I don't know if stranglehold is quite the word I'd use, and I'm not sure they have that much of a concern with events outside of their own calendar, BUT they do exert a great deal of influence over running their events as they want to.

I have said before, and will bore people again with it, I do get fed up with the sniping that goes on between ASO and UCI. I do think ASO should back off, stay within it's business remit, and let UCI do it's job.... sad thing is, it's so damned questionable as to whether UCI is doing it's job. If they were, maybe ASO wouldn't feel they need to try and control its 'brand'.

 

[Skip Madness]

I do think ASO should back off, stay within it's business remit, and let UCI do it's job.... sad thing is, it's so damned questionable as to whether UCI is doing it's job. If they were, maybe ASO wouldn't feel they need to try and control its 'brand'.

Well that's the problem - I think that every time that ASO have been at loggerheads with the UCI over the past few years it's been because they were right and the UCI were wrong.

I don't think that ASO's 49% stake in the Vuelta is a good thing, though.

 

[Sam the Eagle]

ASO is owned by the same group as l'Equipe (French sports-only daily newspaper) and a few other newspapers so they do indeed know how to manage their own publicity

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Well, newspapers started the Tour in the first place so this is hardly new(s)... and Skip is right, every time there has been a dispute between ASO and the UCI, it is the UCI who are saying and doing stupid things, indeed if anything is damaging cycling it is the UCI.

 

[Rassendyll]

Absolutely... give me ASO any day over McQuaid and the UCI.

The decisive one for me was the way ASO brought in the French doping agency instead of the UCI and allowed them to do their job.

 

[Dave5N]

Absolutely... give me ASO any day over McQuaid and the UCI.

The decisive one for me was the way ASO brought in the French doping agency instead of the UCI and allowed them to do their job.

yep