South Africa’s Qhubeka team denied a WorldTour license

It doesn’t look good for South Africa’s Qhubeka-Next Hash, as the UCI, cycling’s governing body, denied the team registration of a WorldTour license for the 2022 season. When the UCI released a list of WorldTour squads for the upcoming season, Qhubeka was conspicuously absent.

The 2022 UCI WorldTeams! ?#UCIWT

— UCI (@UCI_cycling) December 9, 2021

Eighteen teams will be in the 2022 World-Tour. Astana-Premier Tech will be Astana Qazaqstan Team, Deceuninck-Quickstep will be QuickStep-AlphaVinyl Team and Team BikeExchange will go by Team BikeExchange-Jayco. Team DSM changes its registration from Germany to the Netherlands.

Qhubeka acknowledged its omission from the list.

We have noted the UCI's press release today in which we have been refused the registration of a WorldTour licence for 2022.

We remain committed to our purpose of changing lives through bicycles.

We will be making no further comment at this stage.

— Team Qhubeka NextHash (@QhubekaAssos) December 9, 2021

The South Africa-registered squad first came into the WorldTour in 2016 as Dimension Data. In 2020 the team was NTT Pro Cycling and this year it started the season as Qhubeka-Assos before becoming Qhubeka-Next Hash. In May, the squad won three stages of the Giro d’Italia in five days. The team only has five riders under contract for 2022 and its only hope is in a lower division.

The decision has an impact on ProTour teams. Mathieu van der Poel’s Belgian Alpecin-Fenix outfit will continue to have automatic invitations to all the 2022 WorldTour races, as will Nairo Quintana’s Arkea-Samsic of France. Peter Sagan’s new team, France’s Total Energies, will receive invitations to all the 2022 one day WorldTour races.