Race organisers and major teams said they were cutting numbers in almost 30 of the world's biggest races, by the UCI has said they don't have the power to make those decisions.
Cycling’s world governing body, the UCI, has informed race organisers and pro teams they cannot cut the number of riders in most of pro cycling’s biggest races as planned.
The organisers of 27 major pro races, including all three Grand Tours, yesterday said they were cutting the number of riders in each team for the races, in consultation with pro teams.
However, the UCI has insisted less than 24 hours later that neither the organisers nor the teams have the power to make the changes.
“Following recent statements, the UCI wishes to clarify the current position regarding team sizes,” it said.
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“Whilst a potential reduction in team sizes may reflect a view held by some stakeholders, including some race organisers, any changes to the regulations governing men's professional road cycling must be agreed by the Professional Cycling Council (PCC), on which the race organisers are fully represented.
“This subject was discussed at the last PCC meeting in November 2016, and it was agreed to consider in detail the implications of such reduction over the coming months, with no change for 2017.”
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Yesterday ASO, which owns a number of major events including the Tour de France, and RCS Sport, which owns the Giro and a number of other major races, announced they were reducing the number of riders per team in major races from 9 to 8 in 2017 or from 8 to 7 next year.
They were joined in that decision by Flanders Classics, whose races include the Tour of Flanders.
The statement announcing the move was made during the general assembly of the International Association of Cycling Race Organizers (AIOCC).
ASO said the move would benefit rider safety and the statement came after season in which there were a large number of bad crashes, some of them fatal.
"This decision responds to two-pronged objective: the first being to improve the safety conditions for the riders with a smaller peloton on roads equipped with more and more street furniture," ASO said.
"The second, which is a fortunate consequence of the first, is to make it more difficult to dominate a race as well as enhance conditions for events to offer better racing for cycling fans."
The decision was a major one because of the huge number of races involved; 27 in total including all three Grand Tours and the monuments.
And it also would have resulted in a diminishing of the impact of super-teams such as Team Sky, for whom team work and strength in depth has been hard for rivals to deal with.
However, the UCI has now intervened saying the move cannot happen, not for 2017 at any rate.
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