Colombia, MTN-Qhubeka and Team Type 1 confirmed as ProConti; WorldTour registration to wait until December 10th
The International Cycling Union (UCI) has confirmed that it has accepted the request from race organiser RCS Sport to break with more than a century of tradition and move two of its biggest races from Saturday to Sunday. Milano-Sanremo and il Lombardia (aka the Giro di Lombardia) had been held on Saturdays since their first editions in 1907 and 1905 respectively, but a number of issues in recent years - including the expense and difficulty of road closures, and a desire to attract as big a TV audience as possible - have caused RCS Sport to seek to change the day.
Most other big one-day races in the European calendar, including the other three “Monuments” of the Ronde van Vlaanderen, Paris-Roubaix and Liège-Bastogne-Liège have always been held on Sundays; the influence of the Catholic Church meant that, historically, Italy’s big races were held on Saturdays, but this is set to end.
The 2013 edition of Milano-Sanremo will now be held on Sunday, March 17th, while il Lombardia will be held on Sunday, October 6th; this means that il Lombardia returns to October - after its September 29th date in 2012 - but will still be run earlier than traditionally to make room for the two WorldTour tours in China.
The route of the 2014 Giro d’Italia will be presented the day after il Lombardia as usual, but this will now be on Monday, October 7th.
Three more ProConti squads confirmed; the WorldTour teams will have to wait a little longer
In addition to confirming the Classic races’ new dates, the UCI confirmed the registration of three more Professional Continental teams. The names of Colombia, MTN-Qhubeka and Team Type 1 are added to the list of 13 that was released on November 2nd; MTN-Qhubeka steps up to the ProConti division, following five years at African Continental level, making it the first African team to do so.
[Barloworld-Andoni Giocattoli was registered as a South African Second Division team in 2004, but was registered in the UK the following year - as Barloworld-Valsir - when Professional Continental status was first introduced - ed]
The three teams will now not have to appear before the UCI Licensing Commission, as previously planned.
To date - as well as the 16 Professional Continental teams - the UCI has confirmed the registration of just eight of the maximum allowed 18 WorldTour ProTeams. Having previously stated that the remainder of these teams would be confirmed “shortly after November 26th”, the UCI now states that it will “Licences Commission will render its decision… on 10th December,” when the remaining ProConti licenses will also be confirmed.