Former UCI president Brian Cookson announces intention to start a women’s WorldTour team in 2019

"There has never been so much interest in women's sport" says Brian Cookson, who is turning his attention to forming a women's cycling team after his term as UCI president

Brian Cookson at the Cyclocross World Championship

(Image credit: Graham Watson)

In a statement released on Sunday, Brian Cookson said that he had spent some weeks considering his future in the sport following being ousted as UCI president in September and had decided he was “not quite ready to disappear altogether from the world of cycling”.

He said: “I have decided that I want to do something different in the sport. Something that I have not done before.

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Having trained as a journalist at Cardiff University I spent eight years working as a business journalist covering everything from social care, to construction to the legal profession and riding my bike at the weekends and evenings. When a friend told me Cycling Weekly was looking for a news editor, I didn't give myself much chance of landing the role, but I did and joined the publication in 2016. Since then I've covered Tours de France, World