General Manager of the Movistar team Eusebio Unzué has proposed that teams should be allowed replace riders during a Grand Tour.
“Cycling should show humanity,” Unzué told Spanish website Ciclo21. “As there are no options to replace any rider (during a race), we have young riders getting destroyed, doing stages of 200 kilometres in very bad conditions.”
“If there is no option to replace a rider, you could at least consider the possibility of consulting with the doctors to allow two days of recovery when the doctor recommends it. I would like to be able to see that riders who have fallen in the first week can be replaced, and have three riders prepared to replace the injured, as happens in any other sport.”
Unzué would also be in favour of another measure that would balance the forces in the world peloton, limiting budgets.
“The limitation of budgets would have its logic. It would seem to me better if the salaries of the riders were more balanced. Those of us who do not have the unlimited budgets have to fight for the top riders that are in the market, and have less to distribute among the other riders. That’s unfair,” said Unzué.
Unzué also spoke about his concern with the inclusion of the Roubaix stage of the Tour de France next year.
“The unnecessary thing of the Tour are the pavé sections. None of the favourites are happy to see the inclusion of the sections of cobbles. Nobody is going to win the race there. The issue is what bad luck can occur there. Nibali or Dumoulin may care less, but we are all going to have to assume incredible levels of risk.”
