The inner ring website summed up my feelings exactly when the partial list of 2012 ProTour teams was released...minus GreenEdge:


On Monday the UCI announced several teams had obtained Pro Tour licences for 2012, meaning they will be in the top division of cycling for the coming year. The full list and the press release is on the UCI website.
If there was plenty of satisfaction from the teams named, two squads were left looking less pleased:

The decisions concerning the GreenEDGE Cycling and RadioShack-Nissan teams will be announced later – the Commission is currently waiting for the teams to provide additional documents.

Think about this for a minute. Greenedge has been in gestation for 18 months now and has been assiduous in courting the UCI. Radioshack’s “merger” with Leopard only dates from September. But in both cases the UCI has effectively told the world that these squads have administrative issues and that something is wrong. Perhaps it’s just a missing piece of A4, perhaps something more?


I can’t help feel it would be better to name the Pro Tour teams once they’re all in place instead of putting out some the names halfway through the process. Maybe some teams have real issues but airing this doesn’t help anyone; go back to this time last year and the Pegasus riders could not do much about their team’s demise as they were torn between the “waiting for paperwork” announcements and the fact that most teams had completed their rosters. It’s better to have a set date and if these squads cannot clear the hurdles then so be it. But a running commentary and bad headlines don’t help teams or the sport.

Full story at:

http://inrng.com/2011/11/uci-protour-licence/#more-5846