After being denied a WorldTour licence for 2015 by the UCI’s Licensing Commission, many Europcar riders have been left fearing for their race schedules.

“No one knows what’s going to happen with the racing schedules,” Europcar rider Dan Craven told VeloNews. “Without the WorldTour license, everyone’s racing schedule is going to look very different. Everyone is waiting to see what happens.”

Europcar, who only returned to the top level of cycling in 2014, have been sent back to the Pro-Continental level by the UCI as they lacked enough finances to remain a WorldTour team, with 5% of this year’s budget missing for their 2015 one.

“I was really looking forward to racing the Giro this year, and now that looks like it might not happen,” said Craven, who joined Europcar mid-season and raced the Vuelta. “If the team only races the Tour, there will be a lot of guys really trying to make the nine-man squad. If we don’t race the Giro and Vuelta, it will be hard for many to ride a grand tour this year.”

“It’s a real blow about this WorldTour license that has been denied us. It’s hard to swallow,” Coquard told L’Equipe. “We have to change everything. For example, I was going to race the Tour Down Under, and now I have no choice but to be at Etoile de Bessèges. And now we have to be waiting on all the organizers for invitations, and that makes it hard to plan the season. Apart from the Tour, I won’t be racing another grand tour in 2015.”

As a French team, they will be virtually guaranteed Wild Card entries to races like Paris-Nice, Paris-Roubaix, the Dauphine and the Tour de France. But the lack of other WorldTour race days has the riders worried and team manager Jean-Rene Bernaudeau said that stars like Coquard, Pierre Rolland and Thomas Voeckler could leave the team if they wanted, even though that is unlikely as most teams have finalized their rosters.

The team struggled in the WorldTour this year, finishing bottom of the team rankings and they failed to take a single WorldTour win as well. However, they were often very unlucky, as Rolland finished a superb fourth in his first ever Giro d’Italia and eleventh in the Tour de France. Voeckler and Cyril Gautier were second and fifth in stage 16 of the Tour de France, nine seconds behind Michael Rogers. Voeckler was also second in a Romandie stage and Gautier was third in a Paris-Nice stage as well as sixth on GC.

This has all come on the back of news that Europcar would no longer be sponsoring the team beyond 2015.