Sastre and Menchov's Geox squad fails to make ProTeam status

Carlos Sastre, Tour de France 2009, stage 20

The Geox team of Denis Menchov and Carlos Sastre failed to receive a first division licence for next year. According to Italian website Tuttobiciweb, the International Cycling Union (UCI) will overlook the team Geox when it grants the final 18 ProTeam licenses by December 1.

Britain's Team Sky and three other teams - Garmin-Cervélo, Rabobank and Omega Pharma-Lotto - were the only teams assured of a first division licence in a UCI press release last month. The UCI's plan, however, is to grant the first 15 teams in its sporting rankings a first division licence. The UCI's licence commission will award the remaining licences to three of the five team's ranked 16th through 20th: Euskaltel, Geox, Quick Step, Cofidis and AG2R.

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Gregor Brown

Gregor Brown is an experienced cycling journalist, based in Florence, Italy. He has covered races all over the world for over a decade - following the Giro, Tour de France, and every major race since 2006. His love of cycling began with freestyle and BMX, before the 1998 Tour de France led him to a deep appreciation of the road racing season.