#tbt – Patliacci (March 2008)
Introducing Patliacci, the comic-based adaptation of 2008’s feud between the ASO and UCI, which used the opera Pagliacci as a framing device. This was bemusingly high-concept stuff. Shout out to the three people who understand whatever point it was we were trying to make!
It takes some real reverse-engineering to figure out what this was all about. “Pagliacci” became “Patliacci” because my former manager Pat McQuaid was the head of the UCI at the time. It takes place in the 2008 Paris-Nice because that was the first Pro Tour race of the season, where a dispute between the ASO and UCI was about to play out.
The dispute was over the UCI forcing the ASO to invite specific teams to its races. I think. There was some political maneuvering going on: the ASO wanted to exclude Johan Bruyneel and other former Armstrong-era riders. And the ASO made a power move of supporting and interacting with riders directly at a time when the UCI wasn’t appearing to represent their best interests.
This was actually quite the period of expansion for ASO. Their portfolio is huge now and, we’ll reluctantly admit, has generally benefited the sport by subsidizing and growing the smaller races that were hanging on a knife-edge.
The comic was drawn by my then-girlfriend and scripted by me. I have no idea why we made the ASO guy a hippy, or why we even thought this was a good idea at all. Enjoy! (And sorry, Pat.)
And they say satire is dead.