Brian Cookson, the "recently deposed president" of the Int'l Cycling Union (UCI), said that he "wants to start a Women's WorldTour team and has appealed to interested parties to contact him," according to Tom Cary of the London TELEGRAPH. Cookson, who "had been hoping to win a second term as UCI president," was beaten by a vote of 37 to eight by Frenchman David Lappartient in the presidential election in Bergen, Norway, in September. But after a "few weeks spent lying low," the 66-year-old said that he was "not quite ready to disappear altogether from the world of cycling" and wanted to set up a "new professional cycling team structure." Cookson: "My intention is that this should begin with the establishing of a UCI Women's WorldTour Team for 2019 -- a team that will meet or exceed the new high standards that are likely to be put in place by the UCI for the new two-tier structure for Women's Teams that was developed during my term as UCI President." The former president of British Cycling added that the team would be based in the U.K. but "would include riders from all over the globe." He said, "If I can get this off the ground and make it successful, then maybe we could even reverse the usual process, and build a structure for men's teams onto this" (TELEGRAPH, 11/7).
