Race organisers reject proposed reforms of UCI WorldTour

According to L’Equipe, the International Association of Cycling Race Organizers (AIOCC) voted to reject the UCI’s proposed WorldTour reforms at its general meeting in Hamburg on Friday. The group also voted to reduce the number of riders per team to eight for Grand Tours and seven for classics and major stage races.

Earlier in the year, it was suggested that ASO might pull the Tour de France from the WorldTour due to a lack of progress in the UCI’s reform programme. The UCI management committee subsequently approved a number of changes for 2017 onwards during the Road World Championships in Richmond, USA.

However, the AIOCC, which is headed by Christian Prudhomme, the director of the Tour de France – and is heavily influenced by Tour organisers ASO due to the number of races it runs – voted to reject the reforms. It called for working groups to be established so that corrective measures can be proposed.

AIOCC also requested a reduction in the number of riders per team, arguing that a smaller peloton is needed to help reduce the number of crashes.

As organisers of cycling’s biggest race, ASO have long struggled with the UCI for influence over the sport. In 2007, ASO questioned the timing of the announcement of Michael Rasmussen’s missed doping tests and even suggested the UCI had leaked the news in the middle of the Tour de France to damage it. At the time, the two organisations had been involved in a dispute over the running of what was then the UCI ProTour.