The pro peloton for 2016 is not confirmed yet. The International Cycling Union (UCI) still consider four teams that have not met the requirements from an administrative, economic and legal standpoint: CCC Sprandi-Polkowice (Poland), Direct Energie (France), Bardiani CSF and Southeast, both from Italy.

No less than 13 teams were sent to the Licensing Commission after the first official announcement on November 9, a considerable number. This was the reason for a delay of the announcement. It is also true that many had to appear before the Licensing Commission due to a purely administrative matter: their license had expired. But others had serious deficiencies in their applications.

Two days ago, a total of nine made ​​the cut. Cannonale Pro Cycling Team, Etixx-QuickStep, Team Katusha, Lampre-Merida, Lotto-Soudal and Tinkoff will stay in the WorldTour. Furthermore, Dimension Data (formerly MTN-Qhubeka) will join the top level and the WorldTour will again consist of 18 teams as desired by the UCI. However, the grand tour organizers prefer a smaller WorldTour peloton and the Giro would probably have preferred to invite a local team instead of Dimension Data. Now it seems obvious that one of the four Italian teams will miss out on selection for their home grand tour as the organizers have reserved one wildcard for a foreign team.

Furthermore, two other professional teams passed the test of the Licensing Commission: Roth-Skoda and Team Cult Energy-Stölting Group. The former is a Swiss team that moves up from the continental ranks. The latter is a merger of the professional Cult team and the continental Stölting team. They have signed Gerald Ciolek for 2016.

Four teams have still no license: Bardiani CSF (with Sonny Colbrelli and Stefano Pirazzi), CCC Sprandi-Polkowice (which is led by Davide Rebellin and Simone Ponzi), Direct Energie (with Thomas Voeckler, Sylvain Chavanel, Bryan Coquard and Romain Sicard in their ranks) and Southeast (with Jakub Mareczko and Manuel Belletti). The documentation submitted to the auditors Ernst & Young and their visit to Switzerland to present their economic, legal and ethical projects have not convinced the Licensing Commission - at least not yet. "They are still under rreview," the UCI confirmed yesterday in a press release .

The four teams have a long tradition with the UCI. Jean-René Bernaudeau's team has existed since 2000 under the names of Bonjour, Brioches La Boulangère, Bouygues Telecom and Europcar and Bruno Reverberi's team has been in the peloton since 1982, recently under the names of Scrigno, Panaria, CSF Colnago and Bardiani . Angelo Citracca's team has been known as ISD, Farnese Vini, Vini Fantini, Neri Sottoli and Southeast and is registered as Team Tharcor in 2016 and Piotr Wadecki's Polish team has been riding under the CCC banner on different levels for years.

The four already know how to overcome the barriers. For example, Bernaudeau lost Europcar as a sponsor and missed on a WorldTour license in 2015 because of the economic problems. His relationship with the Licensing Commission has been tense in the past. Citracca has had turbulent times more than once, like Wadecki whose has had administrative and economic issues despite gaining entry to the 2015 Giro Giro d'Italia.

They now have a new deadline for submitting the required documentation and complying with the requirements if they want to avoid the worst news: to be left out of the pro ranks and with no other option than to ride at a Continental level without access to the WorldTour races. That is unlikely to happen but the risk is real.

The final decision will come during the month of December. The most common path is that each team has been given extra time for delivery of documentation, bank guarantees and sponsorship contracts on an individual basis. If some are left out, there is one last chance: If the teams do not share the view of the Licensing Commission, they may go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). And they could even go to the regular courts, a much riskier route which was successful for the Spanish team Fuerteventura-Canarias a few years ago.