As every year, the MPCC makes a round up of the invitations sent out by WorldTour race organizers to ProTeams, whether or not they are members of our association.
In the 2023 season, the number of members coming from the second level of competition increased once again to 16 teams out of the 18 in this division. Only Eolo-Kometa and Bolton Equities-Black Spoke, who will be leaving the ProTeam level at the end of the season, have not yet joined. This has enabled the vast majority of races to have all their wild card teams members of the MPCC. It’s also the result of the work our movement has been carrying out for several years to ensure that all invitations granted at the world’s biggest races are awarded exclusively to teams involved in the fight against doping and committed to making cycling even more credible.
Out of the 196 invitations issued by the 35 WorldTour races, only 19 went to « non-MPCC » teams or national squads. For the fifth year running, the percentage of teams invited to WorldTour races remains above 90%. However, the trend seen in 2022 has went on in 2023, with the organizers of the UAE Tour, the Strade Bianche, Tirreno-Adriatico, Milan-San Remo, the Giro d’Italia and Il Lombardia inviting teams that have not yet joined us, such as the Tudor Pro Cycling Team, which made the wise choice of joining our movement on May 24.
These races are labelled “RCS Sport”, which has still not made an MPCC membership, a prerequisite for an invitation, unlike Amaury Sport Organisation (owner of the Tour de France, Paris-Nice, Paris-Roubaix and the Critérium du Dauphiné) and Flanders Classics (organiser of the main Flanders classics, including the Tour of Flanders). Both organisers have reached 100% of MPCC wild cards this season.
Alongside the teams, the founders of our movement, and the riders, race organisers must also play their part and become player in the fight against doping. With this in mind, our movement hopes that RCS Sport, a linchpin in the WorldTour, will adhere to our philosophy and make future access to its races conditional on membership in the MPCC.
