The International Cycling Union (UCI) ProTour Council has released details of the applications for licences received by the August 15th deadline. Of the eighteen ProTour licences currently held ten will be carried through 2011, while the other eight need to be reapplied for.
There are fourteen teams applying for those eight vacant licences.
Of the eight that are not carrying their licences through 2011, all are reapplying; this includes Team Milram, whose sponsor will quit at the end of the year and another has not yet been secured, and Euskaltel-Euskadi, which is reportedly taking a budget cut for next year.
Also having to reapply are Astana, FDJ (previously Française des Jeux), Footon-Servetto (which will be called Geox in 2011), Liquigas-Doimo, HTC-Columbia and Caisse d’Epargne (which will be Team Movistar in 2011).
In addition to the eight reapplications, there are six new names vying for a seat at the sport’s top table. Two of those teams, Cofidis and Bbox Bouyges Telecom, were previously part of the ProTour until they lost their licences last year.
Current Professional Continental teams Vacansoleil and BMC Racing have had mixed fortunes in the upper echelons of cycling this season. Dutch team Vacansoleil were hoping to be invited to the Tour de France or the Giro d’Italia, or both, this year, particularly as both races started in the Netherlands. They were passed over both times, as well as for other big races; for that reason, as well as the sponsor’s further ambition, the team is attempting to step up.
BMC found itself invited to virtually all the races it wanted, mainly due to the presence on the team of World champion Cadel Evans. The UCI reportedly would prefer that the top riders in the sport were members of the top tier though, which may have a lot to do with the Swiss team’s application.
With reports about Fränk and Andy Schleck’s plans to leave Saxo Bank to set up their own team being common knowledge for some time, there are no surprises that Team Luxembourg is on the list of applications. Slightly more surprising though is the addition of an application from Pegasus Sports; the parent company of current Continental team Fly V Australia. There has long been talk of the creation of an Australian ProTour team, much like the Kazakh Astana team, the Russian Katusha team and the British Team Sky, and this application is final confirmation of that ambition.
One prominent name missing from the list of applications is that of the Cervélo TestTeam. The Swiss-registered team, like BMC Racing, has found that the quality of its squad has assured it of invitations to the races that it wanted, although the departure of 2008 Tour winner Carlos Sastre to Geox this week may change that.
Teams will be judged on a series of criteria including sporting, ethics, financial stability and effective administration. The award of the licence will give each team the right, and obligation, to ride all races in the ProTour series; it does not, however, guarantee any right to participate in races in what the UCI calls the Historic Calendar, which includes all three Grand Tours and most of the big one-day races.
With far more applications than available spaces, there are bound to be some teams disappointed. One possible course of action would be to increase the number of available licences; when the ProTour was first launched in 2005 there were twenty teams, which was reduced to eighteen in 2008 when there were not enough team applications.
The Licence Commission will meet in November to evaluate the applications, announcing the provisional list of teams on November 20th; the definitive list of ProTour teams for 2011 will be made on December 10th.
Teams with UCI ProTour licences for the 2011 season:
Ag2r La Mondiale (France)
Garmin-Transitions (USA)
Lampre-Farnese Vini (Italy)
Omega Pharma-Lotto (Belgium)
Quick Step (Belgium)
Rabobank (Netherlands)
Sky Professional Cycling Team (Great Britain)
Team Katusha (Russia)
Team RadioShack (USA)
Team Saxo Bank (Denmark)
Teams with expiring UCI ProTour licences that are reapplying for 2011
Astana (Kazakhstan)
Euskaltel-Euskadi (Spain)
Ex-Team Milram/Velocity (Germany)
FDJ (France)
Geox (currently Footon-Servetto) (Spain)
Liquigas-Doimo (Italy)
Team HTC-Columbia (USA)
Telefonica Movistar/Abarca Sports (currently Caisse d’Epargne) (Spain)
Teams without current UCI ProTour licences that are applying for 2011
Bbox Bouygues Télécom (France)
BMC Racing Team (Switzerland)
Cofidis, le crédit en ligne (France)
Pegasus Sports (Australia)
The Luxembourg Pro Cycling Project (Luxembourg)
Vacansoleil ProCycling Team (Netherlands)