News in Wednesday's L'Équipe guessing that the Bahrain project would be deferred by a year has been denied by the team's future manager. The report in the French newspaper contained no official quotes but speculated that the team would be launched in 2018, and not in 2017 as originally was planned. Vincenzo Nibali, currently riding for Astana, is among the stellar names that have repeatedly been linked to the new project.

However, Cyclingnews contacted Brent Copeland, who will move from Lampre-Merida to run the team. He stressed that the team would be going ahead as planned, and in 2017.

"They must have information that none of the decision makers have," he told Cyclingnews in relation to the L'Equipe report.

"Everything is proceeding as planned on that front and it's for 2017. I obviously can't talk about riders at this stage though as per the UCI rules of August 1 and we'll respect that. There has been a lot of positive progress though in the last few days."

Nibali's agent Alex Carera wouldn't not specifically talk about the Bahrain team, but told Cyclingnews, Vincenzo Nibali will announce his new team after August 1, as the UCI permits. "All the teams that we've held talks with have offered clear contractual guarantees for contract in 2017."

Reports earlier this year hinted that the Bahrain team would be announced on July 11 but so far no date seems to have been set for the official announcement.