Coast: Ban unfair!
ByReuters
Published 10/03/2003 at 13:31 GMT
Jan Ullrich's stable Team Coast, whose licence has been temporarily withdrawn, said on Sunday they felt ruling body UCI was not treating them fairly. UCI suspended German-based Team Coast until further notice on Thursday over alleged non-payment of riders' wages, preventing them from entering the Paris-Nice race which started on Sunday. Follow PARIS-NICE LIVE by clicking on the link below!
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Image credit: Eurosport
Jan Ullrich's stable Team Coast, whose licence has been temporarily withdrawn, said on Sunday they felt ruling body UCI was not treating them fairly. UCI suspended German-based Team Coast until further notice on Thursday over alleged non-payment of riders' wages, preventing them from entering the Paris-Nice race which started on Sunday. Follow PARIS-NICE LIVE by clicking on the link below!
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Team Coast manager Marcel Wuest said the team had provided
UCI evidence that the riders had been paid and asked for the
sanction to be lifted.
"We have done everything correctly and given proof that the
payments had been made on time," he said.
"We feel we are not being treated fairly. We have done
everything right and therefore the suspension should be lifted."
Ullrich's sporting director Rudy Pevenage told Reuters on
Friday that the German rider had not yet been paid and would
move elsewhere if the matter had not been cleared within two
weeks.
But Ullrich's manager Wolfgang Strohband said on Sunday that
his rider had been paid and had not threatened to leave Team
Coast.
"Obviously the matter has to be cleared but there has been
no such thing as an ultimatum," Strohband told German sports
news agency SID.
"Of course money has been paid (to Ullrich). Other teams are
naturally interested in having Jan Ullrich but there's nothing
else to it."
The UCI said on Friday that the suspension still stood,
adding it would not review the matter again until Monday.
Ullrich, who won the Tour de France in 1997 with Team
Telekom, signed a three-year deal with Team Coast in January,
four days after the UCI had granted the team a licence.
The UCI said then it had found there were still unresolved
disputes between the team and certain riders due to the
non-payment of wages for the 2002 season.
The team was warned that the UCI could impose controls on
administrative team management and it might be required to
increase its 2002 bank guarantees if new disputes were reported.
Ullrich parted company with Team Telekom last September
following a dismal season during which he was sidelined by a
knee injury and tested positive for amphetamines.
He returned to training in November after two knee
operations. His doping ban runs until March 24.
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