Before the start of stage three in Australia’s most prestigious road race, UCI President Brian Cookson commented on the future of the Tour Down Under and its role in the WorldTour calendar.

Stressing that the current review of the international cycling calendar remains at quite an early stage of the process, Cookson revealed that ideas have been forwarded about the timing of the season and calendar, fuelling speculation that the status of the Australian stage race is under threat.

"I don't want to pre-empt the final outcome of the calendar review which is a wholesale review of the whole structure of professional men's road cycling," Cookson said according to Cyclingnews.com. "When the riders that I talk to say they love coming down here [Australia], when the teams tell me they like coming here, that it works for them, it's not stressful and on the contrary that it's a really great start to the year for them, those are really positive kind of things to throw into the assessment process that's ongoing."

While the Tour Down Under enjoys huge popularity in Australia, as witnessed by the numerous crowds lining the route every day, competition from the lower-ranked, government-backed Tour de San Luis in Argentina, which takes place simultaneously with the Tour Down Under, and the fact that the Tour Down Under and the next UCI WorldTour event Paris-Nice are two months apart, have caused the UCI to look into the future status of the Australian stage race.

"We develop the calendar, develop the sport in a structured, strategic way and not just in an ad-hoc way," Cookson pointed out. "Whilst it's important we let the review take its course, I don't think anyone needs to be too concerned. I think this is a really successful event and we want to try to build on that success.”

Cookson did emphasize, though, that he considered the Tour Down Under “a great event”.

"So the last thing I would want to do is damage something as successful as the Tour Down Under," Cookson concluded. "It seems to be as far as I can see a great event, it's had a good reputation and it has built incrementally over the years into one of our really strong events."

In a broader perspective, the top priority for 2014 as far as the UCI is concerned, consists of a newly formed, impartial three-member Cycling Independent Reform Commission, for which the UCI has allocated a budget of three million Swiss francs to formally investigate alleged wrongdoings, as well as doping issues that have plagued the sport and left its credibility in the sewers in many people’s eyes in recent years.