Cycling: The Tour de France will also be part of the official UCI WorldTour calendar in 2017. The world association announced late yesterday evening that the differences with the ASO had been settled for the time being and that the Grand Boucle would also receive WorldTour race status in 2017. After years of arguments, the conflict between the ASO and the UCI escalated in spring over the new WorldTour rules, with the UCI banning all ASO-organized races from the 2017 WorldTour calendar. The message seems to have got through.
[blog style=”def” cols=”2″ display=”specific” specific=”41039″ posts_per_page=”0″ offset=”0″ pagination=”no” ad_id=”0″ ad_count=”3″ ad_repeat=”yes”]This round in the power struggle between the Amaury Sports Organization and the UCI probably goes to the world association. The conflict between the two organizations, which had been smoldering for many years, escalated in the spring after the UCI refused to move away from the planned WorldTour reforms. The ASO feared a loss of power and went on the barricades, whereupon the UCI put a big question mark over the classification of the ASO events as WorldTour races.
Now, however, an agreement seems to have been reached - it seems that the UCI was able to enforce its demands. The statement published yesterday states in a nutshell that all the races on the WorldTour calendar will be there again in 2017 – including the ASO events, including the Tour de France and the Critérium du Dauphiné. The planned reforms such as the three-year licenses for WorldTour teams are to be carried out as planned.
In addition, further reforms were announced from 2019 - including a kind of relegation in which the best ProContinental team will advance to the WorldTour, while the bad WorldTour team will lose its status. More information You can find out more about the planned reforms here.