After three years at the professional continental level, the American UnitedHealthCare team has reached a level where they feel they can compete in WorldTour races. General manager Mike Tamayo tells Cyclingnews that he even hopes to start a grand tour in 2014.

Prior to the 2011 season, American continental team Unitedhealthcare decided to step up its level by joining the pro continental ranks. At the same time, it built up a solid calendar of high-level European races and has raced against the biggest teams on European soil in the past three seasons.

Until now, the team hasn't requested invitations for the WorldTour races, feeling that the biggest races were still too big a challenge for the team. After three years at the pro continental level, the team now feels that it is time to take the next step.

General manager Mike Tamayo not only hopes to get invitations to select WorldTour races, he even hopes to ride a grand tour in 2014. The team was represented at the presentations of the courses for the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia and has held meeting with Giro organizers RCS Sport and Tour owner ASO. Both companies also organize several WorldTour stage and one-day races.

"We threw our name in the hat, if you will," Tamayo told Cyclingnews. "We definitely want to be included, we want to be considered. We've been growing for years in order to be able to request an invitation, and it's not an invitation that we request lightly."

In 2013, the team won 8 UCI races, one of them in Europe at the Volta a Portugal where Jake Keough won the final-day bunch sprint. The team's climbers Philip Deignan and Lucas Euser showed their potential in the biggest American stage races by taking several top 10 results on GC in races like the Tour of California and the USA Pro Challenge. Unfortunately, the team will lose Deignan in 2014 as the Irishman has signed a contract with Sky.

Tamayo feels that that kind of results show that the team is ready to take the next step.

"It's one of those things where two years ago I wouldn't have gone and had the meeting with them, but now as the team has grown and we've shown our strength in Europe and we're not just prepared not just as riders, but as management structure, to take on something like a Grand Tour," he said. "Now we feel confident we can do it, versus two years ago when we weren't ready for it. We were willing to admit that to ourselves and prepare accordingly."

In addition to their European calendar, the team raced several criteriums on the American National Criterium Calendar and completely dominated the competition. As a pro continental, they will be allowed to race fewer local American races next year and so will be more focused on their UCI races across the world.

In addition to Deignan, the team will wave goodbye to Keough in 2014. Sprinter Ken Hanson, classics specialist Martijn Maaskant and Colombian Isaac Bolivar will join the team.