Commenting primarily on the current Astana situation during his appearance in Lombardy, the UCI President Brian Cookson took his time to discuss the Fernando Alonso Cycling Team, which was a topic of countless rumors circulating in the first part of the 2014 season.

Even though Alonso first wanted to apply for a WorldTour license and criticized the UCI regulations concerning that matter, then he claimed that his project might as well operate as a Pro Continantal squad, before becoming totally quiet in recent months.

Cookson revealed that, indeed, no application was sent from Fernando Alonso or his representatives, and thus his team, if comes into life, won’t become a part of World Tour next season.

“We haven’t had anything from them about the WorldTour,” Cookson told Cyclingnews at the start of Il Lombardia. “We’re still waiting for further information from them, I think it’s still possible for them to have a ProContinental team for next year, but we’re still waiting for that information.”

Saying this, the UCI President emphasized that the rumored project of the renowned Formula 1 driver may kick-off in 2015, but they haven’t been provided with precise information regarding their plans yet.

“We’ve provided him with every bit of information that is needed and we look forward to hearing of his plans when he’s ready to tell us more about them,” said Cookson. “He’s often said that he’d be quite happy to come in at the ProContinental level and build from there and that makes a lot of sense to us.”

Also the Spaniard himself insisted that he still intends to invest in cycling, after news about his new collaboration with Novo were spread.

Nathan Pillai of the Novo management company confirmed that no WorldTour licence application had been made.

"That is correct, we did not apply for a WT license," he explained. However, he insisted that it would not undermine their intentions to create a team for 2015.