The AIGCP, or Association Internationale des Groupes Cyclistes Professionnels, has issued a statement saying that 'an overwhelming majority of its WorldTour members voted to skip the 2016 Team-Time-Trial World Championships in light of UCI’s unwillingness to offer fair and consistent terms of participation.'
The vote was made on 1st July at the AIGCP General Assembly, and was ratified earlier this week. It comes after recent news of the UCI's WorldTour reforms, which are due to include an extra 10 events on the calendar, increasing the list of races that WorldTour teams are obliged to ride to 37.
The World Team-Time-Trial World Championships are due to be held in Doha, Qatar, on October the 9th, forming part of the World Championships week that also includes Road Race and Individual Time-Trial events. The AIGCP draw attention to the fact that the UCI WorldTour teams are obliged to take part in the TTT at their own expense, in the only event on the calendar that is organised by the UCI itself.
'The WorldTour licence should only compel the teams that are granted one to take part in the events which are granted a WorldTour licence by an Independent Licence Commission,' the statement reads. 'Even when required to take part in a WorldTour event, WorldTeams are always granted a participation allowance to cover some of their costs. It evidences the fact that the governing body has passed exceptional legislation which solely favors the one road competition it owns and commercially exploits.
'The abovementioned terms of participation which exist nowhere else in the sport are undeniably abusive', the statement ends by saying, 'and reveal the abuse of power which UCI incurs in when it enforces them solely for the one road competition it operates. All WorldTeams are expected to skip the TTT World Championships until these abusive practices are abolished.'