Cycling Stands at a Crossroads on Eve of Tour De France

While the doping issue will be foremost in many minds as the Tour travels around France over the next 23 days, the question of the future of cycling itself is also up for grabs, with increasing speculation that the company that runs the race, Amaury Sport Organization, may set up a cycling circuit in opposition to the ProTour run by the sport's governing body, the International Cycling Union.

The ICU has accused ASO of setting up a rival circuit, something the Tour organisation denies, although an unnamed source within the company is quoted recently in a book by the investigative journalist Pierre Ballester as saying it will happen in 2009.

Bob Stapleton, the American who runs Team Columbia, led by the Manx sprinter Mark Cavendish, is certain that professional cycling will soon split along the lines of boxing. "You could see an announcement by the end of the Tour. It is an open issue now. You could see two rival circuits for some period of time and it could be the outcome from next season."

Like ASO's first stage race of the season, the Paris-Nice, this Tour is being run independently of the ICU, under the aegis of the French Cycling Federation, the FFC. Doping controls are not being carried out by the ICU but by France's national anti-doping agency. The race referees are appointed by the FFC, not the ICU. In response to those moves the ICU said: "ASO intends to follow its own rules, within a structure it has created."

Stapleton says the probable split is affecting the teams even as they prepare for their biggest event of the season. "Many teams are trying to sort out what it means to be in the ProTour, what restrictions apply. It's being debated across the teams now." Yesterday one of France's biggest teams, Cofidis, announced that it was resigning from the ProTour because the ICU's circuit would not bring it publicity in countries where it has economic interests.

The schism has its roots in the ICU's founding of the ProTour, launched in 2005. The move was seen by ASO partly as an economic threat, because it felt the ICU could not take a financial stake in the sport which it governs. It saw the circuit as a threat to the organiser's independence, because the ProTour's leitmotif was to guarantee teams entry to major events if they bought a licence.

The dispute between the two bodies has been focused on which teams can ride ASO's string of major events but has grown increasingly acrimonious over the last 18 months, culminating in this year's farcical build-up to Paris-Nice, when the ICU president, Pat MacQuaid, threatened teams who raced the event with bans and fines but then failed to follow through. That episode effectively proved that ASO can act on its own.

The ICU has accused ASO of acting solely to guard its financial interests, while ASO felt last year that the ICU held back compromising information about the Tour's race leader, Michael Rasmussen, in order to sabotage the race. The ICU's vice-president, Hein Vebruggen, the man behind the ProTour, has said that the Tour is "a weak product". The Tour organizers response is brief: 226 towns have applied to host stages of the race.

Currently the aces are all held by ASO. It has the teams' organization on its side. Any of the squads who are unwilling to follow its president, Eric Boyer, are aware that they cannot exist without racing in the Tour. The exclusion of Alberto Contador's Astana team from this year's race is due to ethical reasons but it also shows that the Tour is bigger even than the team of the defending Tour winner.

Amaury has also extended its economic interests in cycling outside France. It has owned the Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège Classics in Belgium for some time and added the Tour of Germany to its portfolio last year. In addition, it has informal links with RCS Sport, the Italian promoter that owns the Giro, the Tour of Lombardy and Milan-San Remo.

This year ASO has bought 49% of the Tour of Spain and most recently signed a cooperation agreement with AEG, the American sports management company that runs LA Galaxy and owns the Tour of California. The ProTour, on the other hand, is actively trying to get races off the ground in Russia, Kazakhstan and the Chinese province of Guangzhou.

David Millar is the oldest of the three Britons riding in this Tour and a man with an economic interest too as part-owner of the Slipstream team. He has no illusions about what may happen soon. "The Tour de France is the biggest and the best-run business in cycling and they can take over cycling if they want," he said.