Australian sprinter Robbie McEwen says the UCI’s ProTour was put into practice without fine-tuning and has left pro riders "caught in the middle" of a dispute between the world governing body and the organizers of some of the sport’s most prestigious events.

McEwen, the 33-year-old Davitamon-Lotto sprinter who has twice won the Tour de France green points jersey, told AFP that the ProTour concept - inviting the best teams to the best races in order to promote the sport more effectively at a global level – should be reviewed.

"The Pro Tour came in with a bang, and it was too quick and everybody realizes that," McEwen said. "They’re still pushing on, but what they should have been doing was fine-tuning it as a model before implementing it. And we, the riders, are the ones who are caught in the middle."

Noting the unresolved dispute between the UCI and the organizers of the three grand tours —the Giro d’Italia, the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España — McEwen said the acrimony would do little to change the status of decades-old races for the riders.

"To be honest, I think myself and the rest of the riders don’t care what they call the calendar. If they call it the ProTour, or if they call it the monkey tour, it remains the Tour of Flanders, it remains Paris-Nice, Tirreno-Adriatico and the Milan-San Remo," he said.

"They’re the biggest, most prestigious races. Who cares what they call it or what umbrella they put it under? Those races remain the ones the guys want to win and have on their palmares. The biggest races remain the same, and that’s what it’s all about."

The start of the season is just around the corner, and the grand-tour organizers - who among them run 11 of the ProTour’s 27 races, and some of the most important ones to boot - have yet to agree to resume negotiations.

Should the two sides fail to reach an agreement, the rebellious organizers could launch their own circuit in competition with the ProTour. On January 13 they officially asked the UCI for authorization to create a "Trophy of the Grand Tours" circuit that would include all 20 ProTour teams this season, but return to a system of automatic inclusion for the top 14 teams with the rest of the field rounded out by wild-card bids. The grand tours are trying to sweeten the pot by increasing prize money for their races, with $600,000 in the offing for the winner.

If the organizers go their own way, the season-opening ProTour race would be the popular one-day classic Tour of Flanders, which McEwen is hoping to contend. Milan-San Remo, the popular Italian classic that normally opens the European classics season, is organized by RCS, the same company that puts on the Giro.

UCI president Pat McQuaid said he hoped both sides could soon end the stalemate but affirmed that changes to any of the current ProTour regulations could only be made after 2008, when the next three-year deal with sponsors and teams will be drawn up.

"I wouldn’t disagree it (cycling) is at a critical stage and I think it’s up to everybody to realize that -- the UCI, the teams, the sponsors and the big Tour organizers in particular," McQuaid told AFP at the Tour Down Under Sunday.

"It’s up to everybody to work together for the future of the sport – if their interests are in the future of the sport. And I think that is the case. Everybody has to give a little ground and that would happen within the discussions for the next three years."

The conditions and regulations of the ProTour "have been settled" for the next three years have been settled, added McQuaid. "Those conditions are there through 2008, and everybody just needs to accept them and work on whatever changes are necessary from 2008 onwards."