MOSCOW, December 10 (R-Sport) - Russia's Katusha cycling team has been denied a WorldTour competition license for 2013, the governing UCI body said Monday.
"The request from the team Katusha for registration in first division has been rejected," a statement on the UCI website said.
Eighteen teams were granted licenses.
Teams are required to meet four criteria to earn a license: sporting, ethical, financial and administrative.
Katusha appeared to meet the sporting criterion, with riders performing well enough in recent times to be in the sport's top 15 teams.
