The UCI is expanding the Pro Tour to Russia in 2009 by including a tour of the Sochi region. (This happens to be the site of the 2014 winter Olympic games.) What the heck is the UCI thinking? I'm usually a pretty big supporter of the UCI (as evidenced in my pro UCI rant here) because I feel that cycling does need a governing body to regulate the sport, but this is ridiculous! I totally understand globalizing the sport and making it grow but why grant Pro Tour status to an untested event? How the UCI can overlook proven events like the Tour of California or the Tour de Georgia is beyond me! It just seems logical to expand the Pro Tour with a race in the US rather than Russia.

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This past week, we learned that ASO bought into a significant stake of Unipublic (49% to be exact), the organization that controls the Vuelta. This continues the negative trend in pro cycling as we see ASO becoming a monopoly in the sport. With ASO controlling a large number of the major races, they have effectively become the Microsoft of cycling. I see many similarities between ASO vs UCI and Microsoft vs all other software companies. Microsoft uses bullying tactics to get their way; ASO uses bullying tactics to get their way. Microsoft buys their competitors; ASO buys their competitors. But before we totally blame ASO (or Microsoft) for all of this mess, we have to consider how they became the Goliaths of their industries.

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