The UCI WorldTour seminar was considered a major turning point in the future of professional cycling, with significant changes confirmed to begin in 2017, offering three-year licences to both teams and organisers and the chance for new races to be added to the WorldTour calendar starting in 2017.
The two days of meetings and presentations were expected to see a showdown between the UCI – which has worked on a new version of the reforms since Brian Cookson's election in 2013, and Tour de France organiser ASO. However, the Tour de France organisers stayed silent during the seminar. Despite interview requests from Cyclingnews, the ASO have yet to explain fully their position regarding reforms and make their proposals.
In this interview Brian Cookson gives his views on the outcome of the WorldTour seminar. He talks about the details of the reforms and his often tense relationship with ASO. Cookson is a diplomat rather than a commander but is determined to push through the reforms of professional cycling, despite ASO’s objections.
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With possible ownership changes to key race organisers also in the news, Cookson called on representatives of sports companies Wanda Group and Infront to talk to the UCI.
Cyclingnews: How did the seminar go? Are you satisfied with the outcome?
Brian Cookson: I think it went very well. I think we’ve now got a balanced set of proposals. It’s not reductionist as the previous proposals from 2013 were. Nobody’s assets are under threat. Maybe not everybody is happy with every aspect but it’s a good set of proposals that I think is a strong solution to things that were damaging in the previous proposals. As I pointed out, in my opinion piece in Cyclingnews last week, even the fans didn’t like those proposals. I pretty much inherited them and we’ve spent the last two years trying to revise them, review and try to come up with something that works a lot better. And I think we’ve got there.
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