The Cyclist Alliance (TCA), widely considered the de facto union of women's professional cycling, has expressed concern over the UCI's recent announcement of a revised 2020 UCI international road calendar.

The sport's governing body announced the broad outlines of the new calendar on Wednesday, prioritizing three Grand Tours, five Monuments, World, European, and national championships, but had limited information on the women's World Tour, which was wiped out by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We have repeatedly approached (the UCI) to be part of the discussion regarding the 2020 UCI women's race calendar. This announcement was made without the athletes' interests or voices being represented. We continue to appeal to the UCI to join us in future planning," the cyclist federation posted on Twitter on Thursday.

In a press release, the UCI revealed that it worked with organizers AIOCC, ASO, RCS, Unipublic, and Flanders Classics leaders, teams (AIGCP), and riders (CPA) to determine a revised calendar. However, no mention was made of initial involvement or discussions with women's events, riders, and team representatives such as TCA.

The main thrust of the UCI press release was to announce a change in dates for the Tour de France, which will now run from August 29 to September 20. These will have a significant impact on the Women's World Tour. The change in the Tour de France dates has forced ASO to postpone La Course, which was originally scheduled for July 19 to coincide with stage 21 of the Tour de France; ASO has stated that no new dates have been set for the women's one-day race.

During COVID-19, it was necessary to suspend the race until July 1 due to important health precautions, affecting the Giro d'Italia International Women's Championship (also known as the Giro Rosa), which was scheduled to run for 10 days from June 26 to July 5.

Currently, the Postnord Vogorda TTT & Road Race (August 8-9), Ladies Tour of Norway (August 13-16), GP de Ploué (August 22), and Boels Ladies Tour (August 25-30), Madrid Challenge by La Vuelta (September 5-6), and the Tour of Guangxi (October 20), eight races remain on the original Women's World Tour calendar.

The TCA has expressed concern over the lack of discussion surrounding the women's calendar, but the CPA women's chapter, led by Alessandra Cappelotto, confirmed to Cycling News that they have discussed the women's calendar with the UCI.

Although she did not provide details of her discussions with the UCI, Cappelotto said that she will meet with the UCI again on Friday, April 17, to discuss the women's race calendar in detail.

"The CPA is in constant contact with the UCI and the women's calendar, which has already received a lot of attention, will be discussed at a meeting between the CPA women and the UCI next Friday, April 17," Cappelotto told Cycling News.

However, according to a UCI press statement, any decision on the Women's World Tour will not be announced until May 15 and will be subject to health precautions and restrictions amid the COVID-19 crisis.

"In parallel, the UCI is working closely with all parties concerned to ensure that a revised UCI Women's World Tour calendar and a new version of the entire UCI International Calendar (men's and women's races across all cycling disciplines) can be released by May 15, 2020 at the latest. Work continues on this. However, this calendar will still be dependent on the global health situation.