Teams to be announced soon

Teams for the Tour de France will be announced within 10 days, organisers Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) said on Sunday.

"We will announce the teams we invite for all our races including the Tour de France within the next 10 days," ASO general director Gilbert Ysern told Reuters at the start of the seventh stage of Paris-Nice.

ASO has been at odds with the International Cycling Union (UCI) over the selection of teams for their events after their refusal to accept the Astana team of 2007 Paris-Nice and Tour de France winner Alberto Contador, of Spain.

The UCI wants to impose its own selection for the Tour, based on its ProTour series and including Astana.

The dispute led UCI to rule Paris-Nice out of its calendar and to threaten the riders taking part in it with suspensions.

The teams, regrouped in the International Association of Professional Cycling Groups (AIGCP) voted to challenge UCI's authority by starting the race in spite of the threat.

The UCI later said they would no longer recognise the AIGCP as a valid teams' representative.

Paris-Nice is organised under the umbrella of the French cycling federation (FFC) and Ysern said the other ASO races like Paris-Roubaix, the Criterium International and the Tour would also probably be organised under the FFC's authority.

ASO also organises two Belgian classics, the Fleche Wallonne and Liege-Bastogne-Liege, and is negotiating with the Belgian federation to stage those races under its authority, outside the UCI's calendar.

"Since we've been excommunicated by the UCI, we have no other choice but to deal with national federations," Ysern said.

He said that ASO and the organisers of the other big Tours, the Giro d'Italia and the Spanish Vuelta had no intention of creating a "private cycling league" but hinted that others might not be so cautious.

"By ruling out all the major players in the sport of cycling, UCI are pushing them in this direction," Ysern said.

Organising races outside the UCI poses problems for the insurance of riders and for anti-doping tests.