The International Cycling Union (UCI) announced today that the start of the UCI Classic Series, which was scheduled to begin in 2020, will be postponed. [This announcement was made during the UCI Women's World Tour and UCI World Tour Seminar in Montreux, Switzerland.

The Classic Series was supposed to bring together most of the one-day races currently held by the UCI World Tour, namely the five Monuments and about 15 other events. However, the team organization, the Association of International Groups of Cycling Professionals (AIGCP), rejected the Classic Series and detailed a list of grievances against UCI reform in an open letter in October.

The UCI says it reached this decision "due to a lack of consensus within the cycling family regarding this new series, which will consist of UCI WorldTour one-day events, despite a unanimous basic agreement among all parties involved in September 2018."

"Convinced of the benefits of this new series as a source of additional revenue to be distributed among the parties involved due to the increased exposure of one-day races, the UCI will continue discussions with representatives of professional road cycling with the aim of launching in 2021. "9]

"In a call for unity, UCI President David Lapartient appealed to all parties to work together to build the future of our sport."

"The UCI is committed to working with the UCI and the UCI's international partners to build a strong and united future for the UCI and the sport.

The UCI has been working for years to reform the World Tour, and its original plan to reduce the number of teams in the top league to 15 and promote the top five teams from the second division to World Tour races was vehemently opposed by the teams and the UCI faced the risk of legal action over the restriction The plan was scrapped due to.

Since 2009, when then UCI President Pat McQuaid signed an agreement with ASO, the organizer of the Tour de France, to promote and demote teams to the World Tour based on points, the World Tour, where the same top teams compete in the same top races each year, has been The concept has been slow to materialize, despite the efforts of three different UCI administrations.

Creating a cohesive race calendar that satisfies fans and pleases race organizers, teams, and sponsors has proven to be a Herculean task.

Teams are seeking multi-year licenses so that they can promise their sponsors a place in the Tour de France and other major races. However, the ASO holds most of the power in professional cycling, and their demands for a promotion/relegation system and freedom to invite wildcard teams add restrictions to the number of World Tour teams.

The ASO has threatened several times to remove the Tour de France and other races such as Paris-Roubaix from the top calendar, and in 2008 the Tour was held outside of UCI sanction, instead operating under the French Federation.

While the race wants assurances that it will attract top teams and riders, the UCI has expanded the World Tour to include the Tour of Turkey, the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, the now defunct Tour of California, Qatar, Abu Dhabi After the tour was expanded to include such far-flung events as the Tour of Turkey and the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, the team opposed a blanket requirement to compete in the expanded calendar.

Under pressure, the UCI relented, requiring top teams to compete only in the "historic" events on the calendar, while the organizers of the new WorldTour events somehow managed to assemble a minimum of 10 WorldTour teams, even though teams were not obligated to compete This was a burden that had to be borne.

All that was left of the World Tour reform was a date of 2023 that would reduce the World Tour to 18 teams and a World Tour calendar that included 21 one-day races and 15 stage races, including three Grand Tours, the Tour Down Under and the Great Ocean With the exception of the road races, the UAE Tour, the Montreal and Quebec GPs, and the Tour of Guanxi in China, events will be held primarily in Europe.

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