AG2R alone in the running

With Thursday's application deadline looming and the recent pullout of Communidad Valencia, AG2R are the only declared candidates.

"We were informed a couple of days ago that Comunidad Valenciana have withdrawn their application," Pro Tour manager Alain Rumpf told cyclingnews.com.

"Basically, they said that they realised that they would not be able to present an application that is of the level of the UCI ProTour. Therefore they decided to register as a professional continental team next year."

If AG2R gets the nod, then France - with Bouygues Telecom, Cofidis, Crédit Agricole and Française des Jeux - would have a fifth Pro Tour team.

Ironically, while French teams are on sound footing, the same can't be said of their riders. The best of the aforementioned teams on this year's Pro Tour was David Moncoutié who ranked 30th.

Italy would be reduced to three teams to Spain's four.

After obtaining the only wildcard to the 2005 Tour de France, Vincent Lavenu's team fared honourably in the event and then - even though a Pro Tour ticket was far from certain at the time - signed for next year Francisco Mancebo (fourth on the Tour) from Illes Balears and Christophe Moreau (11th and top ranked Frenchman on the Tour) from Crédit Agricole.

Rumpf insists that AG2R will still have to sit its oral examination in front of a panel on November 28:

"It is up to the commission. I don't want to give the impression that Ag2R is going to get the license automatically. But equally I do not want to give the impression that there may only be 19 teams next year. It is up to the license commission, they can freely decide."

Meanwhile, riders who had committed to Ferretti's new team are scrambling to book their places elsewhere.

Stuart O'Grady's agent is reportedly in discussions to extend his contract at Cofidis through 2006 while Gilberto Simoni is said to be in talks with the Italian Continental Pro Tour team Naturino-Sapore di mare.

Other riders who'd signed on for Ferretti include Cristian Moreni and Salvatore Commesso.