Robbie McEwen, voice of reason

Yahoo! Sport | McEwen calls for cycling chiefs to stop monkeying around

Time's a-wasting for the UCI and organizers of the three Grand Tours to come up with a plan for this year's race calendar, and legendary cool head Robbie McEwen says it's time for the two sides to reach a compromise.

"To be honest, I think myself and the rest of the riders dont care what they call the calendar. If they call it the Pro Tour, or if they call it the monkey Tour, it (the races) remains the Tour of Flanders, it remains Paris-Nice, Tirreno-Adriatico and the Milan-San Remo," [McEwen] told AFP. "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."

McEwen just finished up the Jacob's Creek Tour Down Under in Australia.

Meanwhile, UCI president Pat McQuaid says no changes can be made to any ProTour regulations until after 2008, because existing regulations are governed by agreements with sponsors and teams.

It's starting to look like we could wind up with a CART/Indy Racing League situation.

Other TDU stories:

Simon Gerrans of AG2R Prevoyance took the overall win, leading from start to finish.

The Advertiser | TDU organizers hope to upgrade their UCI rating