After pulling all of their races from the 2017 UCI World Tour, Christian Prudhomme and the ASO have told Velo101.com why they have request HC Classification for their biggest race, the Tour de France, in 2017.

“Our races will remain under the auspices of the UCI, but as Hors Categorie. We are simply saying to the UCI that we are not in agreement with this reform," Prudhomme said.

Prudhomme wants to see more stars ride local races, as well as reduce the size of the peloton in the Tour to make it more safe.

"Take the example of Vincenzo Nibali, winner of three Grand Tours. In September he raced the Coppa Bernocchi and won. It's great. Compelling the teams to race a WorldTour schedule overloaded in racing days will leave no room for this. Similarly, Thibaut Pinot racing a Tour du Doubs."

 Another reason he says he doesn’t want his race in the WorldTour as it means he no longer is forced to invite all of the teams at that level, and can instead choose to invite who he wants.

"With thirteen WorldTour teams instead of 18 at the start of the Tour de France, it will enable us to open the floodgates to second division teams. At the same time, it will allow us to take fewer teams, 20 in total, to implement what we want, namely a smaller peloton at the start, primarily for security reasons."