Mathieu Van Der Pol's Alpecin Phoenix will change its brand name to Alpecin Desseuninck starting with this year's Tour de France and increase its budget to take the step up to the UCI World Tour, cycling's top league, which is just around the corner.

At a press conference in Montesilvano on the rest day of the Giro d'Italia, director Philippe Rudhoft confirmed that they have applied for a World Tour license for 2023.

"The World Tour is the next logical step for the team," Rudhoeft said, adding that Deceuninck, currently the team's sub-sponsor, will replace Phoenix as naming partner for the men's and women's teams after the Tour de France.

"We will have more budget to be a better team than we are now," Rudofuto said.

"Moving to the major leagues of cycling is a big step not only for us as a team, but also for Deceuninck."

Currently ranked seventh in the UCI rankings for the past three years, Alpecin Phoenix meets the sporting criteria to be one of the teams that will be granted a license for the 2023-25 season.

For the past two seasons, Alpecin-Phoenix has earned an automatic invitation to World Tour races by finishing as the highest ranked pro team in the UCI rankings, and currently trails Arkea-Samsic in the 2022 rankings.

"Winning the pro team ranking is not a given. 'I'm very happy to have won two times in a row, but there's a lot of pressure on me. I'm not afraid of pressure.

Team leader Mathieu van der Poel, despite Alpecin Phoenix being a professional team, has sustained top-level success, winning the Tour de Flanders twice and wearing the leader's jersey at the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia He acknowledged that moving up to the World Tour level would make it easier to attract riders to the team.

"It is certainly quite important. In my opinion, we are already at the World Tour level, but it is easier just to join the World Tour," van der Pol said.

"We never had a problem being on the ProTour, but I think we have shown that as a team we already have a place on the World Tour. Of course, it's good to be part of it."

Deceuninck was the title sponsor of Patrick Lefebvre-led Quick Step, but joined Alpecin as a sub-sponsor before the 2021 season. The company, which manufactures PVC systems for windows and doors, has occupied space on the back of Alpecin's shorts for the past year and a half, but its logo will be replaced by Phoenix.

Deceuninck's three-year commitment runs through the end of 2025, coinciding with the duration of the World Tour license. It also coincides with the length of Van der Pol's contract with the team.

"It is a coincidence for us, otherwise both contracts would have been signed at the same time. It's linked to the next World Tour license," said Rudhoft, explaining that he had turned down the chance to be promoted to the top league at the end of 2020, when the license of the defunct CCC team was available.

Intermarque Wanty-Gobert took over the license while Alpecin Phoenix opted to stay at the Pro Continental level.

"Two years ago, when the CCC license was put up for sale, we weren't ready to go on the world tour ourselves. We wanted to do it in an organic way."