The prospect of a breakaway cycling league appears to have receded after the International Cycling Union (UCI) on Tuesday announced that it had agreed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the men behind the proposed World Series Cycling (WSC).

Speculation concerning a breakaway event separate from the UCI’s WorldTour has been gathering momentum over the past year and Tuesday’s announcement from the UCI came a day after WSC stakeholders disclosed further details about their proposals for the series. The UCI said in a statement: “The International Cycling Union confirms that it has been in discussions with Omega Pharma-QuickStep owner Zdenek Bakala and his business partner Bessel Kok since late 2011 about the possible development of the professional road cycling calendar.”

The statement continued: “These discussions have included their potential financial investment in a new joint venture company with the UCI and other cycling stakeholders that would promote and organise elements of this new calendar. The UCI has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with them as the initial investors in the joint venture and will now enter into extensive dialogue with the teams and race organisers before any final agreement is concluded.”

On Monday, Jonathan Price from WSC promoter Gifted Group, and his business partner Thomas Kurth, formerly general manager of the G-14 group of leading European football clubs, outlined their plans to journalists. They confirmed talks were underway with the UCI and Czech billionaire Bakala and that discussions had been held with organisers of major races. The CyclingNews.com website reported that the WSC would be founded by eight current WorldTour teams in the shape of Omega Pharma-QuickStep, Garmin-Sharp, Liquigas-Cannondale, Movistar, Vacansoleil-DCM, Saxo-Tinkoff, RadioShack-Nissan and Rabobank Cycling. The report added that the proposed WSC calendar would feature 10 new worldwide grand prix four-day events alongside the three Grand Tours (Tour de France, Vuelta a Espana and Giro d’Italia) and six of the major one-day classics (Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Amstel Gold Race, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Giro di Lombardia).

The formation of the WSC has been seen as a means to boost the commercial value of cycling and Price had been keen to reject notions of it being a breakaway series. “There's been a degree of fear around this project that we - the so-called breakaway which we've never been - were somehow going to kind of incur the displeasure of the UCI and that therefore being involved in it would cause trouble,” he had said. “I think now teams come to realise that's not the case. On the contrary, we want to work with the UCI; we have the funding to put it together from Mr Bakala. We want to do this with the stakeholders in the sport and there's no reason to be fearful and every reason to participate in the process of reforming the sport.”

The UCI said the possible development of the professional road cycling calendar will be subject to comments from the wide-ranging consultation ‘A bright future for cycling’ that will involve all the stakeholders in the sport and which will take place in the first quarter of 2013. The governing body added: “No agreement has been reached on the reforms that will take place to the calendar and as such any media reports about the future of the calendar are pure speculation at this stage. However, the UCI will retain full control over the calendar, including sporting and technical elements. The UCI and the investors are also committed to ensuring that the final structure of the joint venture will avoid conflicts of interest.”

Source: www.sportbusiness.com