The UCI's Global Cycling Promotion (GCP) has made the first move in the anticipated battle between themselves and the potential breakaway cycling tour that is being drafted up by the Rothschild Group and the Gifted Group. The partnership between the latter pair has developed into a proposed new big money world tour called World Series Cycling that could revolutionise the sport, as Cyclingnews revealed earlier this month. The GCP has now moved to throw a spanner in the works by buying the internet domain names worldseriescycling.com, worldseriescycling.net and worldseriescycling.org, so that their rivals can't use them.
The GCP was set-up by the UCI to expand the sport's globalisation and at this stage it retains the crucial backing of ASO, which owns and organises road cycling's premier event, the Tour de France. When contacted by Cyclingnews on Thursday, sources at the GCP and UCI refused to comment on the development. But close inspection from Cyclingnews has revealed that the GCP's name appears on the ownership documents for all three domain names.