I swear, does this guy not hear what comes out of his mouth? Because if he does, what in tarnation made him think this was a remotely helpful thing to say?

Are the Grand Tours responsible for the demise of Discovery Channel? Are sponsors reluctant to sign on, if they don’t have any guarantees that the team will appear in the top races? Possibly, said UCI President Pat McQuaid.

“Especially when organizers come out and make all kinds of statements, which are against the rules, deciding who gets to race and who doesn’t, all based on subjective opinion,” McQuaid said in an interview with AP. “If sponsors aren’t guaranteed their team can race, they won’t commit to the sport. It shows exactly why the sport can’t allow such a thing. We can’t just allow organizers to do their own thing.”

“It’s not good for world cycling. It’s not good for U.S. cycling,” McQuaid said, adding that the bad relations between the Tour, the French and Armstrong added to the situation. “The French have a love-hate relationship with Lance. They can’t get it into their heads that he won the Tour seven times. The French media continue to make insinuations. They haven’t made Lance or the Discovery team very welcome.”

Diplomacy be damned, apparently. If cycling goes to hell in a handbasket this year, we’ve got a lot more than doping to blame.