Cycling has always suffered from its unique economic model - without the income of ticket sales or television rights falling to the teams, the sport is left to rely on the charity of the corporations it calls sponsors. The UCI has struggled throughout its history to improve the situation, but has been up against the titan of the sport - the Tour de France. The race owners Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) remain the most powerful force in cycling, and rightly so since modern road cycling has its origins in the Tour de France.
The ASO (and its predecessor Société du Tour de France) has battled with the UCI for decades, most recently rejecting the approved WorldTour reforms and pulling their races from the calendar for 2017.
The origins of this modern war date back to the 1980s, when the UCI instituted the world rankings and later the World Cup, and used the points system to decide which teams could be invited to which races. Aside from shifting the internal dynamics of the team by placing pressure on more riders to get points, the rules began to dictate to race organisers which teams they could invite. This is a point which the ASO has never fully accepted.
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The UCI wants to bring stability to the teams by offering multi-year licences, and therefore a guaranteed start in the major races, making it easier to sell the sponsors on the team and the media exposure the Grand Tours bring. The ASO are unwilling to give up control, and the phrase "we do not accept a closed system" has been their rally cry since day one.
2003 - the birth of reforms
In 2003, the UCI began to draw up the scheme which would become the WorldTour. In June, 2003, then-UCI president Hein Verbruggen made the plans public, announcing a new European series aimed at attracting more sponsorship to the sport. Verbruggen envisioned a set calendar of 30-50 races, contested by 20-22 teams with the aim of boosting cycling's middle class.
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