A month ago in Paris, the organizers of the three grand tours made a very public statement by holding a press conference in which they said they were going to extract the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia, Vuelta a España and their eight ancillary races from the UCI ProTour system. In a direct challenge to the Union Cycliste Internationale, the organizers [ASO in France, RCS in Italy and Unipublic in Spain] said they would create their own Grand Tour Trophy competition and offer the 20 ProTour teams a package of prizes and bonuses that would total almost $5million.

“I find it hard to imagine that the UCI could oppose a trophy that recompenses and adds to the resources of the teams,” said Tour chairman and managing director Patrice Clerc at the press conference on December 9.

Well, the teams aren’t impressed. After a meeting of the AIGCP [the International Association of Professional Cycling Teams] in Brussels this week, the 20 ProTour squads “rejected in their totality all of the proposals made by ASO, RCS and Unipublic on December 9, 2005.”

In the rejection letter sent to the UCI, its ProTour Council and the three grand-tour organizers, and signed by AIGCP president Patrick Lefévère and AIGCP secretary Yves Bonnamour, the teams confirmed that they “accept without reservations all the [ProTour] regulations put in place for the 2005-2008 period, notably the number of races and teams … and reaffirm their support for the UCI ProTour Council for the organization of this competition.”

In those few words, the world’s most powerful pro teams — without which the grand tours would be degraded to sideshows — shot down what they see as the retrograde and divisive plans announced last month by Clerc and his associates.

Indeed, the latest rejection confirms what Lefévère, manager of world champion Tom Boonen’s Quick Step team, said a month ago: “I’m convinced that certain sponsors, those who have a long-term vision for their investment in cycling, could well do without the Tour de France. And without the big riders, the public will go and watch other races.”

Clerc clearly hasn’t heard that message. He still believes that cycling can return to the system that existed before the ProTour was inaugurated last year.

Clerc’s ASO [Amaury Sport Organisation] is a division of the Paris-based Amaury Group, which also includes L’Équipe, the influential daily French sports newspaper. Interestingly, after the December 9 press conference, L’Équipe devoted a full broadsheet page to the grand tour organizers’ announcement, and heralded the plans with great fanfare.

The newspaper has since treated the grand tours’ “split” from the ProTour as a fait accompli, even though none of their plans can be accomplished without the teams and their riders. Perhaps the newspaper also believed that professional cycling would not turn down a multi-million-dollar payout.

Stunningly, when the ProTour teams did just that at their meeting this week, L’Équipe virtually ignored the bombshell. The editors decided to bury the news in a half-dozen lines relegated to the foot of page 9 in this Saturday’s edition. And there was no reply from ASO, RCS or Unipublic.

Perhaps L’Équipe and the three organizers should heed the last sentence in this week’s letter from the teams that says: “The AIGCP remains ready, as is always the case, to study with all the parties concerned, the future of the UCI ProTour.”

When the team sponsors met with UCI president Pat McQuaid, ProTour Council president Vittorio Adorni and former UCI president Hein Verbruggen at a Brussels hotel on December 12, they confirmed their commitment to a “strong and united” cycling at the world level and expressed their will to assume “a more prominent role” within the ProTour.

To cement their commitment, the 20 ProTour team sponsors asked for a second meeting, which will be held on January 18 at the UCI headquarters in Aigle, Switzerland. That’s on the eve of a two-day session at the same location to be attended by all the ProTour team managers and race organizers (hopefully including the grand-tour bosses!) to finalize details of the 2006 ProTour.

This could lead to what McQuaid told VeloNews in a recent interview: “I want to see all of the stakeholders — the three grand tours, the other organizers, the teams, the riders and the UCI ProTour Council — all sitting around the table and working to try and improve the problems that there are within the ProTour.”

Whether Clerc and his collaborators have the vision and ability to take their heads out of the sand and come to that table remains to be seen. If not, the continuing war of words can only escalate into chaos.