Brian Cookson has slammed French race organiser ASO’s plans to move all of their top races from the WorldTour down to HC level for 2017. ASO announced that it would register its events, including the Tour de France, Vuelta a España, Paris-Roubaix and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, as HC races in 2017 in protest at the UCI’s proposed reforms of the WorldTour system.

Cookson says ASO have researched their decision properly, as moving to HC would severely alter their biggest races.

“I don’t think their move is a helpful one and I wonder if they’ve thought it through properly,” Cookson told the Guardian. “Have they looked at all the rules? The maximum distance for HC events is 200km, so are they going to shorten Paris-Roubaix or the longer Tour stages? They can’t pick and choose which rules apply to them if they want to be part of the sport.”

Cookson insists that he doesn’t want to damage or destroy the ASO, just allow other races in cycling’s top tier to grow and attract big names too.

“It’s not that radical,” Cookson said of the reforms. “The Tour de France will always be the greatest race in the cycling firmament but there has to be potential for other races to come into the WorldTour. Perhaps ASO won’t organise all the new events, but we want to make everyone economically stronger, not just one private company. No one is trying to damage them, we are trying to grow the sport around them.”

The WorldTour without ASO would look like the following:

Tour Down Under

Tirreno-Adriatico

Volta a Catalunya

Mlilan-Sanremo

E3 Harelbeke

Gent-Wevelgem

Ronde Van Vlaanderen

Vuelta al Pais Vasco

Paris-Roubaix

Amstel Gold Race

Tour de Romandie

Giro d’Italia

Tour de Suisse

Clasica San Sebastian

Tour de Pologne

Eneco Tour

GP Plouay

Vatenfall Cyclassics

GP Quebec

GP Montreal

Worlds Team Time Trial

Il Lombardia