The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) Management Committee unanimously rejected the One Cycling project's inclusion in the men's and women's WorldTour calendars for the 2026-2028 cycle. The project, spearheaded by Richard Plugge, aimed to attract significant investment to professional cycling, restructuring its business model and increasing financial support for teams.
The UCI cited the project's incompatibility with its governance and regulatory framework, along with concerns about sporting coherence. While open to continued discussion for future collaboration on calendar internationalization and economic development, the UCI deemed the current proposal unsuitable.
The One Cycling project had anticipated funding from the Saudi Arabian SURJ Sports Investment fund, promising substantial financial contributions to men's and women's teams. The rejection represents a major setback for the project.
Despite the One Cycling rejection, the UCI announced several calendar adjustments and rule modifications, including:
The updated men's and women's WorldTour calendars for 2026 are detailed in the article, including specific race dates and locations.
The UCI announced that its Management Committee has approved the men's and women's WorldTour races through the end of the next three-year cycle in 2028 on Thursday, with the committee unanimously voting to exclude the One Cycling project from the calendar.
"While welcoming the fact that road cycling is attracting new investors, the UCI Management Committee nevertheless unanimously decided, following the PCC's vote in this direction, not to respond to the request, as it stands, to include the OneCycling project in the UCI Women's WorldTour and UCI WorldTour calendars," the UCI announcement read.
"The project, which had been developed by certain teams and organisers, in collaboration with a sports investment fund, was deemed incompatible with the governance and regulatory framework of the UCI as well as lacking sporting coherence.
You may like"However, the UCI wishes, as do all cycling’s stakeholders, to continue discussions with the representatives of this project in order to collaborate on the internationalisation of the UCI Women's WorldTour and UCI WorldTour calendars and the economic development of our sport."
The One Cycling project has been spearheaded by Visma-Lease a Bike manager Richard Plugge as a way to bring external investors in to rebuild cycling's business model, hoping to bring more money to teams through various revenue streams.
The decision of the UCI Management Committee is a serious blow to the project, which had found support from Flanders Classics, the organisers of numerous WorldTour races including the Tour of Flanders.
The Saudi Arabian SURJ Sports Investment fund, controlled by the huge Saudi PIF sovereign wealth fund, was expected to finance One Cycling via a €250 million investment and provide €1 million a year for the next three years to the men's teams and €250,000 to the women's.
Other than omitting One Cycling from the calendar, the UCI WorldTour and Women's WorldTour calendars remain the same, except for one new race for the women: Dwars door Vlaanderen, which steps up from the Pro Series.
The women's Giro d'Italia date will move to late May to take place just after the men's Giro, while the Classic Brugge-De Panne changes its name to "The Great Sprint Classic".
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