While eleven WorldTour teams signed on for the Velon project, notable absences were three of the best stage racing teams in cycling: Movistar, Astana and FDJ. Also missing were Katusha, Europcar and AG2R. These teams told Cyclingnews about why they chose not to join the group seeking to improve cycling.

"Representatives from the Velon project have not made any contact or proposal to the team," a spokesman for Astana told Cyclingnews on Wednesday. This was later confirmed to Cyclingnews by a Velon spokesperson but the team’s management company, were involved in a conference call in the summer.

In a statement to Velonews, Movistar confirmed that it had been involved in talks but suggested that, for now at least, the telecommunications company that sponsors the team is reluctant to enter into any collective deal on audio-visual content and television rights, which appears intrinsic to Velon's plans.

FDJ have decided not to sign up for now and will “wait and see” how the project gets on before deciding if they want to join.

"FDJ does not reject the project but its outline is still too fuzzy," Madiot said. "We are in a period of observation, many things will change from 2016 and in 2017 [the planned start date of the UCI's changes to the WorldTour structure – ed]. We don’t know what the future will be."

"We didn’t go into Velon because we're a state enterprise and participation in Velon requires a financial commitment to a company based in England. So for purely legal reasons, it was difficult," Madiot said of team funded by the French lottery investing in a foreign company.

Cyclingnews contacted Velon to ask if any other teams with partial funding from state bodies had cited similar concerns. The lottery-sponsored Lotto-Belisol and LottoNL-Jumbo (currently Belkin) are signed up to Velon, for instance, but Astana and Katusha are not.

Cyclingnews also asked Velon if it was possible to outline the kind of financial commitment demanded of each member team.

"Each team is different and each will make its own decisions for its own proper reasons as to whether or not to join the Group and we respect those positions," Velon CEO Graham Bartlett said in an email, although he did not mention the financial outlay involved nor did he refer to any individual team.

"The teams in Velon come from seven different nations and represent the growing global interest in the sport. There are eleven teams committed at the start of this venture and whilst its aim is to grow in number there's a great deal this group feel they can achieve right now. For all other teams, there’s an opportunity to join Velon not just as a shareholder but also as a business partner. There are many options to explore for positive benefits for both. We're open to talk."

The other team from the WorldTour not involved in Velon is Europcar. Manager Jean-René Bernaudeau told L'Équipe that he was opposed to the idea of the group because he fears it might lead to the introduction of a closed league at the top flight of cycling. "Behind it there's always the idea to create a pro league like the NBA and I'm against that," he said.