Ilan Vardi
August 6th 03, 02:09 AM
The Grande Boucle is underway again, and as strange as ever.
In Sunday's L'Equipe, Catherine Marsal wrote an article detailing the
legal woes of the race over last few years, and the race almost didn't
happen this year, due to rider complaints (too many transfers, etc.)
and subsequent problems with the UCI. I knew that already, but
she also described a more intrinsic problem, which is that the race is
run by two organisations which don't get along. There is the
organisation
Team France Organisation (TFO),
of the organiser Pierre Boue, and another one, Racing Club
Organisation
(RCO), which owns the dates of the race,
whatever that means. This RCO has been run by Marianne Mezin since
1997,
and things have been rocky ever since. Since Boue was firing his
employees in seemingly random fashion, RCO took him to court,
and I can't figure out what happened from the article, but the upshot
is that RCO wasn't in the picture, and the race no longer had
the dates for the race. Since TFO was no longer viable, Boue created
a new company, Velo Feminin (they have a website), and
asked to get dates fhave the for the race from the UCI and French
Cycling Federation,
who refused. He then went to court and manged to convince them that
Mezin had been elected president of RCO under irregular circumstances,
and Mezin had to resign. However TFO still had to pay RCO the 22,445
Euros owed for the prize money put up by RCO for the 2002 grande
Boucle.
This situation has still not been settled.
The UCI and French Federation agreed that the club of the
Midi-Pyrenees
could temporarily have the dates of the race and this club also had
to pay the prize money for the 2003 race, and make sure that UCI
regulations are followed. There is an UCI observer present at the
race.
In the meantime, Boue is facing a debt of 300,000 Euros, and has had
to make drastic cutbacks in the race. In particular, he says he had
to replace three star hotels with Formule I hotels (the cheapest
hotels, where you there is no front desk, you pay with a credit card,
no restaurant, etc.), he only had money for one car per team on
the ferry to Corsica, and meals have been replaced by meal vouchers
honoured by some restaurants, usually the cheapest ones, these meal
tickets are best known because that is what homeless people ask for
when begging on the Paris Metro.
Otherwise, more mystery surrounding the Grande Boucle. In particular,
last year's "godmother", Cynthia Compain. She was listed as riding
in the race on the velo feminin website, riding for the team
Pruneau d'Agen, but is not listed in the Stage 1 and 2 results.
In fact, there are 72 in the list of riders on the website, but
only 66 riders listed as finishing stages 1 and 2, without any
mention of people abandoning the race, or missing the time cut.
Cynthia has also had her share of problems. She was riding for
team Mazza, which was scheduled to ride in the race, but Mr. Mazza
decided at the last minute that he didn't want his team to
participate,
and she had to find a new ride. Last Tuesday, someone at Vincennes
asked her if she was riding, she said yes, but refused to state which
team (4 days before the race!). Riding in the Grande Boucle is
essential to her career, modeling career, that is, since that is the
only race those people seem to understand. Her level is as bad as
ever,
she finished second to last in the French ITT championships, and
that's supposed to be her strong point. She has a website now.
-ilan
In Sunday's L'Equipe, Catherine Marsal wrote an article detailing the
legal woes of the race over last few years, and the race almost didn't
happen this year, due to rider complaints (too many transfers, etc.)
and subsequent problems with the UCI. I knew that already, but
she also described a more intrinsic problem, which is that the race is
run by two organisations which don't get along. There is the
organisation
Team France Organisation (TFO),
of the organiser Pierre Boue, and another one, Racing Club
Organisation
(RCO), which owns the dates of the race,
whatever that means. This RCO has been run by Marianne Mezin since
1997,
and things have been rocky ever since. Since Boue was firing his
employees in seemingly random fashion, RCO took him to court,
and I can't figure out what happened from the article, but the upshot
is that RCO wasn't in the picture, and the race no longer had
the dates for the race. Since TFO was no longer viable, Boue created
a new company, Velo Feminin (they have a website), and
asked to get dates fhave the for the race from the UCI and French
Cycling Federation,
who refused. He then went to court and manged to convince them that
Mezin had been elected president of RCO under irregular circumstances,
and Mezin had to resign. However TFO still had to pay RCO the 22,445
Euros owed for the prize money put up by RCO for the 2002 grande
Boucle.
This situation has still not been settled.
The UCI and French Federation agreed that the club of the
Midi-Pyrenees
could temporarily have the dates of the race and this club also had
to pay the prize money for the 2003 race, and make sure that UCI
regulations are followed. There is an UCI observer present at the
race.
In the meantime, Boue is facing a debt of 300,000 Euros, and has had
to make drastic cutbacks in the race. In particular, he says he had
to replace three star hotels with Formule I hotels (the cheapest
hotels, where you there is no front desk, you pay with a credit card,
no restaurant, etc.), he only had money for one car per team on
the ferry to Corsica, and meals have been replaced by meal vouchers
honoured by some restaurants, usually the cheapest ones, these meal
tickets are best known because that is what homeless people ask for
when begging on the Paris Metro.
Otherwise, more mystery surrounding the Grande Boucle. In particular,
last year's "godmother", Cynthia Compain. She was listed as riding
in the race on the velo feminin website, riding for the team
Pruneau d'Agen, but is not listed in the Stage 1 and 2 results.
In fact, there are 72 in the list of riders on the website, but
only 66 riders listed as finishing stages 1 and 2, without any
mention of people abandoning the race, or missing the time cut.
Cynthia has also had her share of problems. She was riding for
team Mazza, which was scheduled to ride in the race, but Mr. Mazza
decided at the last minute that he didn't want his team to
participate,
and she had to find a new ride. Last Tuesday, someone at Vincennes
asked her if she was riding, she said yes, but refused to state which
team (4 days before the race!). Riding in the Grande Boucle is
essential to her career, modeling career, that is, since that is the
only race those people seem to understand. Her level is as bad as
ever,
she finished second to last in the French ITT championships, and
that's supposed to be her strong point. She has a website now.
-ilan