"Better teams need to be fielded in Australia and China" - UCI want more from teams in quest to make sport increasingly global

In the modern day, the UCI World Tour truly lives up to its name and travels to a wide variety of nations across the planet. The strive to make cycling a global big-hitter could still be further helped by the team's themselves according to Tom Van Damme.

Van Damme has a variety of key roles in cycling, including chairman of the Belgian Cycling Association and an important figure within the Pro Cycling Council (PCC). “With the PCC we are responsible for the WorldTour and after four years we are finally back in China. That is why we are here on site,” he told Sporza from the Tour of Guangxi. “The WorldTour season starts well in Australia (Tour Down Under) and we now end in China, which shows that we have the ambition to become a world sport."

That ambition of becoming a global sport is a key goal for the UCI going forward. "It is also necessary to tap into those big markets and then it is our job to be here. We are trying to implement a reform with a more clear programme. One of the important points is internationalization, tapping into other continents and becoming a global sport," Van Damme explains.

More could yet be done however he believes. “I think the field of participants here in China could be better,” Van Damme states. “Many team managers say that there should be internationalization in the sport. This not only concerns international sponsors, but also participation in races outside Europe. Better teams need to be fielded in Australia and China. We must have serious ambitions and we must set up a step-by-step plan of five and then ten years."