Mauro Vegni, who is the head of cycling at RCS Sport, has announced that he hopes the men's Strade Bianche race will be registered on the 2017 WorldTour race calendar. The Abu Dhabi Tour is hoping for WorldTour status too.

"We’ve made a request for Strade Bianche to be added to the 2017 WorldTour. We’ve been told it’s on the short list and so it was under observation this year. Lets hope it can become part of the WorldTour. We think Strade Bianche has everything needed to go onto become one of the great Classics of the WorldTour," Vegni told Cyclingnews. "We’re involved in the organisation of the Abu Dhabi Tour too and it’s also on the short list. I think the UCI’s plan is to have around 20 or so races in the WorldTour but many of them are races that are already in the calendar. I don’t think all the new requests will be given WorldTour status for 2017 but we think Strade Bianche has shown it immediately deserves a place."

The UCI has revealed that 21 candidates from four different continents have applied for places in the 2017 WorldTour race calendar. Their announcement follows the first Professional Cycling Council meeting of 2016.