Why bother buying a protour licence. It the cost is high, so what are the benefits?

I agree with you.
If you got a Pro team, that's enough. The only thing you gotta be sure is having some strong guys who can "gain" a wild car here and there.

pro cycling is really going down the pooper. Sponsors are falling through. Teams are folding. Scandals every day.

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This board and the world in general would be a much nicer place if everyone could just take themselves a little less seriously.

Probably true but also true as proven by Unibet is the fact that the license don't mean ^$%##
It is not a key into any races even the ones you are qualified for. Why pay the fee to have one?

"Professional boxing" and the pro tour have a lot in common. The next step will be comparing it to "pro wrestling"

it is a sad state of affairs, I have my strong opinions on where the fault lies but nothing is ever black and white, and I'm on the outside looking in so I'll keep my opinions to myself, but yes it is very sad.

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Gravitas est meus Hostilis
Painted Roads Cycling: http://www.paintedroads.com
Words: http://mikesimagination.wordpress.com

Does that mean we'd have to have a carbon fiber cage match, or maybe a titanium cage match instead of wrestling's "steel cage match"

I believe if the race organizers are more serious about making a statement against doping than gambling, then they would not bother keeping Unibet, which has no positive tests, out of their races. This is the angle UCI should of approached the "heated discussions". The Vuelta organizers, Unipublic, will not replace Astana with Unibet, which is one Protour team with an another, which proves my point, the organizers are more serious against gambling than doping with their actions to me.