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UCI confirms 19 WorldTour teams for rest of season after Katusha wins appeal

Governing body heads off threat of legal action but creates headache for race organisers

The UCI has confirmed there will be 19 WorldTour teams for the remainder of the 2013 season. The announcement follows Katusha's successful appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against the decision of the UCI Licence Commisson not to award it a licence for this year. Originally, the UCI had suggested that in the event of Katusha winning its appeal, several teams would have to reapply for WorldTour status, and one would miss out.

That won't now happen, and today's announcement by the UCI, which it says was agreed upon by the Professional Cycling Council (PCC) whose members include representatives of teams, riders and the governing body itself, heads off any possibility of legal action on the part of whichever team would have been excluded.

The decision does however create a headache for race organisers, who are represented on the PCC through Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme and French ex-pro Charly Mottet, who now helps run the Canadian WorldTour one-day races in Québec and Montréal.

RCS Sport's Michele Acquarone has already lamented the problems which Katusha's readmission will cause his organisation, since the team will have to be accommodated within Tirreno-Adriatico and the Giro d'Italia.

The Russian outfit missed out on wild cards for both those races, but with its restored WorldTour status it has the right to an invitation, as well as an obligation to participate in them.

RCS has said it won't withdraw a wild card to any of the teams already granted them for those two races.

While there will be logistical issues for the three-week long Giro in particular - hotels, transfers and the like having long been booked and now needing to be tweaked - having an extra team in the race is not without precedent.

Indeed, it happened as recently as 2011 when organisers were allowed to increase the field to 207 riders instead of the usual maximum of 200 during a year in which the race celebrated Italy's 150th birthday.

Tour de France organisers ASO have not yet announced the wild cards for this years race, and it remains to be seen whether three non-WorldTour teams will be invited or whether it too will seek to expand the 100th edition to include 23 teams.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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5 comments

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Gkam84 | 11 years ago
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Finally a sensible decision, but good to see it wasn't made by the UCI, but by the PCC.

I was beginning to think the UCI had a brain between them  26

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Lungsofa74yearold | 11 years ago
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Now all we need to do is sit back and wait for the first Katusha drug bust  19

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antonio replied to Lungsofa74yearold | 11 years ago
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pastaman wrote:

Now all we need to do is sit back and wait for the first Katusha drug bust  19

Will this move be a 'Positive' for Pat?

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jollygoodvelo replied to Lungsofa74yearold | 11 years ago
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pastaman wrote:

Now all we need to do is sit back and wait for the first Katusha drug bust  19

First rest day of the Giro, I reckon. Sweepstake?

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ubercurmudgeon | 11 years ago
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The UCI: Never Knowingly Competent

I wonder if this will cause Bradley to skip the Giro and refocus on the Tour, if it turns out the hotels are all booked, and he would have to share a bed? Because the old using-a- pillow-as-a-divider trick never works, and you end up spooning by morning (not that there is anything wrong with that, if it is your cup of tea, I'm not a Tory cabinet minister.)

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