By the time you read this, the ICPT member teams may have successfully sat down Pat McQuaid (tweedledum) and Patrice Clerc (tweedledee) and browbeat the two of them into doing their jobs. While taking umbrage at each others' remarks is a comfortable way for guys like this to do business, it's failed to provide the sport with even a modicum of progress on working out the Pro Tour's parameters. So the ICPT is calling on the negotiations to give it another go. McQuaid is on my teevee right now saying that they can find compromise on things like revenue, but not on the rules, i.e. including Unibet. Maybe the combined glare of 17 teams will get the message to ASO and the UCI that it's time to stop trading nonsense and re-engage on the issues. Paris-Nice is 6 days away.
As we saw this weekend, when Cycling does turn its focus to the road, things go much better. Het Volk was a star-studded finale with a surprising, dramatic last kilometer. KBK was mellower, more predictable, but a show of Quick Step power that the other teams shouldn't ignore.
Did Quick Step compensate with its total control of the KBK finale for their unsuccessful turn around Het Volk? Saturday they looked overpaid. Sunday... not so much. Quick Step aren't ready to let the peloton see the light of day at any Belgian race, but I for one am not entirely sure they can stop the others.
Het Volk and KBK are still tough to read into. Stars come out but not necessarily at their best. Pippo poached a win with cleverness, not raw power (though he has the latter too). Boonen drove the chase Saturday but was gassed, being still below his peak form. At least, I'm telling myself the results don't indicate much... since my VDS team did bubkis.