All 18 WorldTour teams "are set to boycott the team time trial at the 2016 Road World Championships" in Qatar in October in the face of an "abuse of power" on the part of the Int'l Cycling Union (UCI), according to CYCLING NEWS. This week, the Int'l Professional Cyclists Group Association (AIGCP) ratified the motion to skip the trade-team event after an "overwhelming majority" of WorldTour teams voted in favor. WorldTour teams "are required to participate in each event on the WorldTour calendar," but are also obliged to compete in the TTT at the World Championships, the only road events run by the UCI, "entirely at their own expense." The AIGCP, which claims its demands to the UCI have so far fallen on "deaf ears," feels the terms of participation are "abusive" and said that unless the terms are revised, "the race will take place without the sport's top-level teams and riders." The vote took place during the AIGCP General Assembly on July 1, "with the intention that action would be taken should a solution not come by early August." It is understood that the attending Pro Continental teams "also supported the motion" (CYCLING NEWS, 8/10).
