Following the first meeting of 2016 of the Professional Cycling Council, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) has announced that over 20 candidates from four continents have applied to reach the UCI WorldTour level in 2017 and for the two subsequent seasons.

As part of the reform of men’s professional road cycling, events were offered the opportunity to apply for a UCI WorldTour three-year licence as of 2017.

These events will now be assessed throughout the 2016 season based on a range of criteria including technical quality of the races, their role in the strategic development and promotion of the UCI WorldTour, and the narrative of the season.

Expansion of the UCI WorldTour will help fans’ interest across the world and throughout the year, and bring more attention not only to events joining but just as importantly to existing UCI WorldTour events, which will also be given a three-year licence from 2017.

UCI President Brian Cookson said: “We strongly believe that with the reform of men’s professional road cycling there is a great opportunity to grow the UCI WorldTour with a number of new events, and create an environment where new investment can come into the sport. We are delighted to welcome such strong interest from around the world for the 2017 UCI WorldTour and beyond and the fact that we have had so many applications spanning four continents is testament to the growing strength of the UCI WorldTour brand. I am convinced that the addition of new high quality events will help the UCI WorldTour re-inforce its global profile as the elite series of cycling, and look forward to working with the current UCI WorldTour events, new entries and teams to develop our sport.”

The UCI has not revealed the identity of the races but CyclingQuotes understands that GP Lugano is among them. Cyclingnews claims that possible candidates include the Tour of Qatar, Strade Bianche, the Presidential Tour of Turkey, Tre Valli Varesine and the end of season Abu Dhabi Tour.