UCI sends stern letter to Visma | Lease a Bike and co, putting them under pressure regarding the continuation of ONE Cycling

Cyclingnews has obtained a copy of Lappartient's letter, in which the Frenchman leaves no room for interpretation. WorldTour teams attempting to set up a different competition could lose their WorldTour licence and race registration. ONE Cycling comprises several cycling teams, race organizers, and a sports investment fund reportedly worth €250 million.

Major teams, such as Visma | Lease a Bike and organizer Flanders Classics, were mentioned as part of the plan to elevate cycling to a higher level, primarily in terms of financial support. For a long time, it was unclear whether the UCI would go along with the ideas, but in June, the plan was rejected. “The project was deemed incompatible with the UCI's governance and regulatory framework and also lacked sporting coherence,” the cycling federation wrote.

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Instead, the UCI presented a plan for at least 2026, 2027, and 2028, although it did offer the participating parties of ONE Cycling the possibility of further discussions. “The UCI, like all other stakeholders in cycling, wants to continue discussions with the representatives of this project to work together on the internationalization of the UCI Women's WorldTour and UCI WorldTour calendars and the economic development of our sport.”

Apparently, the response was not very positive, as evidenced by a letter from Lappartient, which had a different tone. According to Cyclingnews, he explained once again why the UCI does not see any potential in ONE Cycling's plans at this time. He warned: "The way in which the joint venture between teams, organisers and the investor would operate meant that they would de facto take over authority to determine a hierarchy among events of the UCI WorldTour and UCI Women's WorldTour by deciding which events would be part of the OneCycling Series and those which would not."

Parties that did not want to be part of ONE Cycling would suffer, according to Lappartient. And so it was written: "Given the media reports which state that the proposed OneCycling project may still proceed in spite of the UCI MC (Management Committee) decision, it seems appropriate to put the stakeholders of cycling on notice that pursuing with the project without authorisation would lead to unauthorised links between teams and organisers and potential proceedings which can lead to the withdrawal of events' registration from the UCI WorldTour and UCI Women's WorldTour calendars by the UCI Management Committee."