No points available for participating teams in Doha
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BMC are the 2015 World champions in the team time trial(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Trek Segafredo in team time trial mode(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
2016 Road World Championships Men's Team Time Trial course(Image credit: Doha Cycling 2016)
The 2015 podium of Etixx-Quick Step, BMC and Movistar(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
BMC celebrates gold at Worlds in Richmond
Cyclingnews understands that there will be a WorldTour presence in the team time trial at this year’s World Championships in Qatar. Last month, the Association International des Groupes Cyclistes Professionels (AIGCP) announced that all 18 of the WorldTour teams would boycott the men’s event citing an "abuse of power" from the UCI.
However, Cyclingnews has been informed that an agreement has been reached for eight teams to ride at the UCI’s flagship event. A victory in the team time trial would normally be worth 200 points for the winning team, but because of the absence of most teams, there will be no WorldTour points available for the participating squads.
The team time trial at the World Championships is part of the WorldTour calendar and therefore all teams holding a WorldTour licence must participate under UCI rules. However, the AIGCP agreed to boycott the event by an "overwhelming majority". The decision came after the teams of the AIGCP felt that the UCI had not answered concerns they had regarding the event and said that the UCI had been abusing its position to further its own event.
In the past, teams have had to pay their own way to the competition but Cyclingnews understands that the UCI will also give each of the teams around €2,000 to help fund their trip to the Middle East.
It is not yet clear which teams will participate.
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Born in Ireland to a cycling family and later moved to the Isle of Man, so there was no surprise when I got into the sport. Studied sports journalism at university before going on to do a Masters in sports broadcast. After university I spent three months interning at Eurosport, where I covered the Tour de France. In 2012 I started at Procycling Magazine, before becoming the deputy editor of Procycling Week. I then joined Cyclingnews, in December 2013.
