Vuelta boss Javier Guillen was elected on Friday as the new chairman of the International Association of Race Organizers (AIOCC). The Spaniard succeeds Christian Prudhomme, who served as AIOCC chairman for nearly eighteen years and was the successor to Victor Cordero, who stepped down in 2008.
The AIOCC represents the interests of the biggest race organizers in the cycling world. The organization works closely with the UCI on topics such as safety and the race calendar.
Guillen himself calls it a 'great honor' to succeed Prudhomme. "He has always been an inspiration to me. Being able to follow in his footsteps is a huge responsibility and motivation for me. My work will mainly focus on maintaining continuity. Of course, we face enormous challenges in cycling with the protests and a number of social and political issues, but my task is to preserve cycling in the current situation."
The new AIOCC chief immediately points out in an interview with WielerFlits what he will focus on in the first months: the salary cap. Despite the idea having recently been rejected by the teams themselves, Guillen wants to keep working on it. "Maybe we won't reach an agreement, but we must keep talking about it," he says clearly.
Finally, he touches on Jérome Pineau's idea of organizing ticket prices at races. Guillen is against that: "No, we are and will remain a free sport. I’m open to discussing every issue, but what we should do as a sport, in my opinion, is try to find new revenue sources. We are not going to do it that way."
