Obligated to Race

This weekend is Paris-Roubaix. If you're reading this blog, you know that already. As one would expect most of the cycling chatter this week on the interwebs is directly related to Paris-Roubaix. Pictures of Roubaixs in the past, descriptions of just how terrible the cobbles are, technical reviews of the changes being made to team bikes, and, if you're velonews, a sort of odd story that features Ben King, current US National Champion and his upcoming first attempt at Roubaix on a squad that has about no chance at winning.

In the end, what I took away from this particular story is that the current system where the UCI requires the teams with ProTour license to race all the races on the ProTour calender is clearly screwed up. To prove this point, look at the roster that Radioshack is sending to Paris-Roubaix:

Ben King
Bjorn Selander
Jesse Sergent
Fumiyuki Beppu
Robbie McEwen
Nélson Oliveira
Gregory Rast
Sebastian Rosseler

My assumption would be that these guys are working for, I have no idea, nobody in that group is even a long shot at winning this race. I'm going to actually make a point to see how many of these guys even bother finishing. Clearly Radioshack is built to win stage races. With Levi Leipheimer, Chris Horner, Andres Kloden, Janez Brajkovic and the rest of their climbing/TT focused team, they don't really give a damn about the cobbled classics. Even Rast and Rosseler are flat stage body gaurds, not classics specialists in a true sense. And that's fine, but for the sake of the race, let's stop forcing teams to participate that don't care. I'm pretty sure whatever squad Euskatel is sending this week will be heavily seen at the back of the bunch and drawing straws for who gets to abandon at the first feed zone. Whichever unlucky riders draw the long straws have to abandon at the second.

Instead of forcing teams with ProTour license to show up and abandon why not give Radioshack and company the opportunity to offer their spot up and enter more wild card Continental squads. I'd be willing to bet if you replaced Radioshack and Euskatel and a few others who don't care with two Belgium squads, you replace pack filler with recognizable jerseys with guys that show up motivated to make some sort of statement in the biggest race of their careers.

Let's face it. The chairman who approved the sponsorship of Radioshack isn't going to brag at the end of the year that their team had two riders finish Paris-Roubaix and most of the Basque fans who go crazy in the mountains during the Tour de France can't possibly have any hope for their guys come Sunday. Those teams are focused on a different kind of racing and that's a perfectly justifiable decision. But the governing bodies are doing both the race and smaller, more motivated teams a disservice by forcing participation on teams that couldn't care less. I'd rather have a race that includes five teams I'd never heard of throwing hail marys every chance they get to make the race exciting than a bunch of feed zone abandons out of obligation.